Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  No, probably not. it would probably be just a gradual increase.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I'm in Atlanta, Georgia.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Oh, yes.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Yes. The problem with the OAS.... I don't think that Venezuela is threatening to withdraw from the OAS, but Venezuela has been an active supporter of creating alternative organizations that exclude the United States and Canada, the most recent of which, as you know, had its secon

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I ask those questions too when I go to Venezuela. I think it may be a combination of several things. One is the transition of the police force, which is perhaps not a good presence in some of the areas, or simply not a presence at all in some of the poorer areas where crime see

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I'm not sure there's been much proven in terms of a Hezbollah presence in Venezuela as opposed to further south. It is in Argentina and the triangle between Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina, I believe, that there is more evidence of that. Certainly the role in synagogue bombings i

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  There are a couple of possibilities that maybe we should look at. One is going back to the 2002 massive march, which resulted in violence that resulted in the coup against Chávez. There has never been a good investigation about that violence—or we'll say a definitive investigati

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I have not found confrontation to be effective. It produces a backlash, and it produces counter-confrontation that I don't find very effective. This year in particular, as I said, is a year of uncertainty and potentially a year of transition. I think it's an extremely important

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I do, yes. I believe that was definitely one of his goals. As I said, there was a foreign policy goal—a global goal—and a domestic goal, which included redistributing income and political power within the country and addressing the needs of the poor. I also want to point out th

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  Well, I think that you have to look at the whole thing much more in political terms, rather than particularly human rights terms or other terms. In terms of the choice of alliances for Venezuela, as I said, Chávez's main goal, as I read it, has been to increase the autonomy and

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I mentioned that a commission was formed in 2007; the government realized that there was a problem in Venezuela and that they needed to do something, so they formed a commission. It actually made some very good recommendations, not all of which were adopted by the government, and

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  My understanding is that Venezuela has provided some gasoline components, for which the U.S. applied a light sanction a year ago against Venezuela as well as a couple of other companies around the world, including an Israeli company. It was for providing gasoline components to Ir

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  It's only what I have also read in the press, which was that Venezuela has been sending diesel to Syria. As I said, I think it's part of this foreign policy strategy of asserting autonomy, of independence, in the same way that he was defending, I think more rhetorically than an

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I think perhaps the most prominent case, and the one I'm more familiar with, is the case of the one judge, Judge Afiuni.

Subcommittee on International Human Rights committee  I did see her when I was there last month in Venezuela. I went to visit her. She is now under house arrest. She had been released from prison. I think that case, which did not follow due process, also served to intimidate other judges. It's a negative example for independence o