NGOS CITE WORRISOME HUMAN RIGHTS PATTERNS

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 CARACAS 001969

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

HQSOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD
DEPT PASS TO AID/OTI RPORTER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/04/2017
TAGS: PGOV PREL PHUM VE
SUBJECT: NGOS CITE WORRISOME HUMAN RIGHTS PATTERNS

REF: A. CARACAS 01191

B. CARACAS 01635

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Classified By: Political Counselor Robert R. Downes
for Reason 1.4(b).


1. (C) SUMMARY. Several prominent local human rights
organizations recently released critical reports on the human
rights situation in Venezuela. These studies document
patterns of human rights violations, often allegedly
involving Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (BRV) officials,
agents, and sympathizers. At a monthly breakfast with NGO
leaders and the diplomatic community, human rights activists
continued to express concern about their safety and feared
that President Chavez' proposed changes to the constitution
may affect their ability to operate in their respective
sectors. END SUMMARY.

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Human Rights Issues
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2. (SBU) The Office of Human Rights for the Catholic Church
presented September 20 a report on threats against human
rights advocates, including defenders of victims of state
violence, labor leaders, and land rights activists, in
Venezuela. According to the study, the conditions under
which human rights defenders undertake their work has
significantly deteriorated in the past decade, particularly
since 2004. For example, between May 1997-May 2007, 72 human
rights defenders were reportedly killed in Venezuela.
Government security forces and officials were allegedly
involved in seven of the 72 cases. During the same ten-year
period, the Office of Human Rights registered 213 attacks,
including violence, threats, and defamation of character via
government-owned media outlets. The Catholic Church's report
concluded that the BRV failed to protect human rights
activists against violence or investigate attacks even after
they were duly reported to government ministries.


3. (C) Director of the NGO Citizens for Security Rocio San
Martin gave a press conference and released a report
September 18 documenting political discrimination in
Venezuela. San Martin noted that from January 2003 to June
2007, 1222 individual cases of political discrimination were
reported in the country's four major circulation newspapers
("El Nacional," "El Universal," "Tal Cual," and "Ultimas
Noticias"). Groups and collectives were also targets of
political discrimination, most notably journalists and media
owners, opposition student leaders, and former employees of
state oil company PDVSA. According to the report's findings,
President Chavez and other high ranking BRV officials made
over 200 politically discriminatory statements during the
same time period. (Note: The Office of Human Rights and
Citizens for Security are currently USAID grant recipients.
End Note.)

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Poloff Meets with Activists and Other Diplomats
-------------- --


4. (C) Poloff met September 27 with NGOs and members of the
diplomatic community as part of a monthly meeting, hosted
this time by the Political Section, to discuss the challenges
facing NGOs. Human rights defenders discussed the
difficulties of working in a highly polarized environment and
shared their views on Chavez' constitutional reform package.
Meeting participants included Carlos Ayala, a lawyer and
president of the Andean Commission of Jurists; Andres
Canizalez, a researcher at the Catholic University and
journalist for Reporters without Borders; Jose Gregorio
Guarenes, director of the Office of Human Rights for the
Catholic Church; Mohamed Merhi, founder of VIVE, a victims of
state-sponsored violence advocacy organization; and Solbella
Perez, journalist for "El Universal" newspaper and member of
COFAVIC, a long-standing human rights organization. Members
of the diplomatic community included the French Ambassador,
the French Political Counselor, the Argentine Political
Counselor, and a representative from the Norwegian Embassy.


5. (C) As in previous meetings, human rights defenders
expressed concern about their personal safety (Ref A). They
highlighted recent examples of threats, violence, and
BRV-harassment via the media against their colleagues.
Specifically, they mentioned threats against Humberto Prado,
director of the Venezuela Prison Observatory, and Liliana
Ortega, director of COFAVIC. Prado reportedly continues to

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receive death threats. Moreover, government ministers have
repeatedly accused him of fomenting riots in the country's
prison system. The participants believe that the BRV is
employing heavy-handed tactics in an effort to silence
Prado's efforts to raise awareness on the abysmal conditions
in Venezuelan prisons. (Note: Prado is generally apolitical,
committed to prison reform, and is not affiliated with
opposition politics. End Note.)


6. (C) Ortega and other COFAVIC members have allegedly been
the victims of physical assaults, threatening phone calls and
emails, and attempts by government officials to discredit the
NGO's victims' advocacy work. A local judge summoned Ortega
October 3 to hear the NGO's case, but the trial date was
postponed. Ortega has denounced the BRV's failure to protect
her against further attacks or investigate leads in
accordance with an Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
decision to grant provisional measures of protection on her
behalf.

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Chavez' Constitutional Package
--------------


7. (C) Participants also discussed the implications for the
human rights community of Chavez' constitutional reform
package and the upcoming referendum tentatively scheduled for
December 2. The activists feared that Chavez' proposal to
regulate international support for organizations with
"political goals" or with an "electoral focus" would be used
to obstruct all non-governmental activities in the country
(Ref. B). Specifically, the proposal would deny NGOs foreign
funding opportunities. They also noted that the proposed
reform is strikingly similar to the Law of International
Cooperation, which the BRV proposed in 2006, but on which
they deferred legislative action following strong negative
domestic and international criticism.


8. (C) Guarenes highlighted important differences between the
1999 constitutional reform process and the current one.
In 1999, Chavez encouraged groups from civil society to
submit proposals and included several grassroots proposals in
the final document. However, during the current reform
campaign Chavez has attempted to control all aspects of the
process and has excluded other sectors from the discussion.
According to Guarenes, Chavez plans to push the package
through as quickly as possible and with few, if any,
substantive changes.


9. (C) Consistent with what we have heard from other
contacts, the human rights activists believe Chavez will
continue to frame the referendum tentatively scheduled for
December 2 as a vote of confidence on his presidency. They
noted that despite significant disapproval among the
"popular" sectors for proposals such as indefinite
re-election and further centralization of power, Chavez
sympathizers will vote in favor of the reform if they
perceive his presidency is at stake. Perez added that
COFAVIC and its affiliate organizations in the interior of
the country plan to undertake a national education campaign
to raise awareness on the reform package and its
implications. Perez argued that it was the responsibility of
NGOs to educate the public as much as possible without
usurping the responsibilities of political parties. She
encouraged other organizations to reach to their bases and
organize discussion sessions as well.

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COMMENT
--------------


10. (C) The reports released by the Catholic Church's Office
of Human Rights and by Citizens Security received extensive
press coverage in the local print media and independent
all-news cable networks. Notwithstanding positive reporting
on their work, human rights activists are concerned that
elements of Chavez' reform package will severely limit their
ability to work freely in Venezuela.


11. (C) Moreover, the activists overwhelmingly believe that
Chavez' political machine will successfully pull off a
victory during the December 2 referendum. Nevertheless, they
are convinced they have a role to play in educating civil
society and spurring greater democratic dialogue. They also
expressed little confidence that opposition political parties
had the ability do their share to put a dent in Chavez' plan
to move the constitutional reform process forward.

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DUDDY