HR DEFENDERS WARN OF AUTHORITARIANISM, ARBITRARY

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CARACAS 001262 SIPDIS USSOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD DEPARTMENT PASS TO AID/OTI (RPORTER) E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/29/2029 TAGS: PGOV PHUM PREL VE SUBJECT: HR DEFENDERS WARN OF AUTHORITARIANISM, ARBITRARY LAWS, AND THREATS REF: CARACAS 1086 CARACAS 00001262 001.2 OF 002 Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR ROBIN D. MEYER REASON 1.4 (D) ¶1. (C) Summary: During a September 24 breakfast hosted by Embassy Caracas' human rights officer, Venezuelan human rights defenders expressed profound concern to 22 Caracas based diplomats about the increasingly limited democratic space within the country. They expressed concern about the discretionary authority in the new education law, the lack of international expert participation in the exhumation of victims from the 1989 Caracazo massacre, continued government pressure against the independent media, the politicization of the judiciary, and the increasingly dangerous environment human rights defenders face. End Summary. ¶2. (C) On Thursday, September 24, Embassy Caracas' human rights officer hosted a breakfast in order to provide human rights defenders and 22 western diplomats a discrete opportunity for open dialogue. Many of the diplomats are recent arrivals and this breakfast was their first opportunity to meet leading Venezuelan human rights activists. The human rights defenders attending the breakfast were: Carlos Ayala, former President of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States (OAS); Liliana Ortega, President of COFAVIC, an NGO originally founded to represent the victims of the 1989 Caracazo massacre; Carlos Correa, the Executive Director of "Espacio Publico," an NGO that serves as a media watchdog; Feliciano Reyna, President of Sinergia, an NGO working with HIV/AIDS; and Humberto Prado, President of the Venezuelan Prison Observatory. The diplomats who attended the breakfast represented 15 missions: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech, European Union, Finland, France, Germany, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States. -------------- DISCRETIONARY APPLICATION OF LAW -------------- ¶3. (C) Carlos Ayala told members of the international community that new laws recently passed by the National Assembly (AN),and legislation currently under consideration, could potentially have a major impact on human rights in the country. Ayala was particularly concerned about the Education Law's heavy reliance on executive discretion for its implementation (Ref A). Ayala added, "With the requirement that educators be licensed by the Ministry of Education, implicit problems are bound to occur due to discretionary (power) that is applied based on clearly subjective criteria." Other human rights defenders also expressed concern that the proposed 2006 draft Law on International Cooperation, if passed, would further give the government a tool to pick and choose which NGOs would be allowed to operate. -------------- AND THE DEAD SHALL NOT REST -------------- ¶4. (C) Of particular concern to Liliana Ortega was the September 21 decision by prosecutor Luisa Ortega Diaz to exhume the common graves of victims of the 1989 Caracazo massacre in order to identify the victims. (Note: Venezuelan military forces are suspected of shooting and killing several hundred people during civil disturbances in February 1989, during the government of Carlos Andres Perez, in reaction to economic austerity measures. End note.) Ortega expressed concern that the exhumations were nothing more than a diversion to make the Venezuelan government appear responsive to human rights issues and, more importantly, remind people of the failings of the "Fourth Republic" that the Bolivarian Revolution was committed to redress. In fact, Ortega noted, "the exercise is being carried out by the same military that was accused of perpetrating the massacre, only that lieutenants then are now the generals." Remains are being transferred to a nearby Caracas military base, and there is no outside international monitoring body participating in the forensic investigation. Ortega said that without an outside international forensic team, such as the preferred Argentinean Forensic Anthropology Team, the victims' families would be hard pressed to accept as authentic any remains identified in these exhumations. CARACAS 00001262 002.2 OF 002 -------------- -------------- PRESSURE CONTINUES AGAINST MEDIA, JUDGES AND DEFENDERS -------------- -------------- ¶5. (C) Human rights defenders told diplomats that given continued government pressure against the media, press freedom clearly remains under threat in the country. They also noted an increasingly dangerous environment for conducting human rights work, including death threats against activists, co-workers and family members, electronic monitoring of computers and telephones, and continued judicial harassment of prominent human rights defenders. According to one participant, during one week in September, three different offices of human rights NGOs were broken into and all reported the theft of their personal computers and blackberrys by the unknown assailants. Human rights defenders said that while they were scared to continue their work they knew many other activists outside the capital city had it far worse due to their remote locations and limited access to the international community. DUDDY