CHAVEZ STRONGLY REJECTS HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 CARACAS 000258 SIPDIS USSOUTHCOM ALSO FOR POLAD DEPARTMENT PASS TO AID/OTI (RPORTER) E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/27/2029 TAGS: PHUM PREL PGOV VE SUBJECT: CHAVEZ STRONGLY REJECTS HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT REF: STATE 17308 CARACAS 00000258 001.2 OF 002 Classified By: Deputy Political Counselor Daniel Lawton, Reason 1.4 (D) ¶1. (C) Summary: President Chavez, Foreign Minister Maduro, and other senior Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela (GBRV) leaders strongly criticized the Human Rights Report February 26-27. Chavez phoned a late night pro-government political talk show to denounce the report as hypocritical. He also suggested that Venezuelans should not have high expectations about the new U.S. administration. Foreign Minister Maduro said the report is "false, ill-intentioned and interventionist" and suggested the annual human rights report is seriously damaging bilateral relations. GBRV leaders were largely reacting to the prominent and positive coverage that local private media gave to the report. The GBRV's reaction to this year's human right's report has been much stronger than it has been in recent years. Rather than address the substance of the report, Chavez and other GBRV officials have instead chosen to attack the messenger and to suggest that improving bilateral relations depends on the USG not criticizing the GBRV. End Summary. -------------- CHAVEZ - USG STILL AN EMPIRE -------------- ¶2. (SBU) President Chavez strongly rejected the State Department Human Rights Report during a 1:00AM broadcast of the pro-Government "The Razor" ("La Hojilla") political talk show on February 27. Chavez referred to the Human Rights report as hypocritical, noting that former President Carlos Andres Perez and accused terrorist Luis Posada Carriles are currently residing in the US. Chavez added, "You should not have great expectations of this new U.S. Government which will continue being an empire, an empire which tramples the people and now is irresponsibly accusing me of violating human rights." Rather than address the substance of the Human Rights Report, Chavez used the broadcast to call upon the USG to extradite Posada Carriles for his alleged role in a 1976 terrorist attack against a Cuban jetliner. (NOTE: Luis Posada Carriles was sentenced in Venezuela for blowing up a Cuban jetliner, killing 73 mostly Cuban passengers aboard. Imprisoned in Venezuela from 1976-1985, Carriles later escaped from prison. In 2005 the anti-Castro Carriles surfaced in the United States where he subsequently claimed political asylum after being detained on immigration charges. END NOTE.) -------------- -------------- GBRV VOCIFEROUS REACTION - STRONGLY REJECTS REPORT -------------- -------------- ¶3. (SBU) The Ministry of Foreign Relations (MFA) issued a February 26 communique "categorically and strongly rejecting" the human rights report. The communique stated that the report is "false, ill-intentioned and interventionist" and from a country "with the darkest record of human rights violations and abuses to human dignity in contemporary history, and without a mandate or legitimacy to judge foreign states." The communique called on the US Government to end the practice of issuing annual human rights reports, suggesting that "these practices are continuing to damage relations between the two nations." ¶4. (SBU) Foreign Minister Nicholas Maduro reinforced the GBRV's ire in a February 26 press conference that "the U.S. Government prevents the chance for our continent to establish new political relations." Maduro further criticized the report as being "plagued with lies... and citing sources that are completely distorted." Maduro called on the USG to end the issuance of such reports, saying, "The US must stop these imperial practices that must be repudiated by all. They are permanently attacking and seriously affecting the possibilities to establish ties between the elite ruling the United States and sovereign governments throughout the hemisphere, particularly the government of President Hugo Chavez." Maduro added, "Relations between our two states should be based on respect and equality, not on interference in internal affairs." ¶5. (SBU) Other senior GBRV officials and party loyalists quickly lined up to criticize the Human Rights Report and the USG. Minister for Communication and Information Jessie Chacon referred to the report as a "Patchwork quilt made by CARACAS 00000258 002.2 OF 002 embassies of various countries." According to Chacon, "It would be interesting to analyze how the Americans assess the prison at Guantanamo, the prisons they have in Iraq and Afghanistan, and all the complaints of real violations of the human rights of people who right now no one knows whether they are prisoners of war or are subject to a judicial process. They are in limbo and there is no international justice to defend them." Roy Daza, Venezuela's National Assembly chairman of the Foreign Policy Committee, expressed the assembly's rejection of the report on February 26. Daza announced his intention to contact the U.S. Congress directly to reject the terms in which the report was written. Said Daza, "this was a very bad start for Barack Obama and his administration... a continuation of the policy of George W. Bush." ¶6. (SBU) The release of the Human Rights report coincided with events commemorating the 20th anniversary of the 1989 rioting and looting in Caracas ("Caracazo"). Poloff and a small number of other Caracas-based diplomats were invited to and attended the GBRV's conference commemorating persons killed during the "Caracazo." Speakers called the rioting a "popular revolt" and a precursor to Chavez's Bolivarian revolution. Several prominent pro-Chavez supporters used the occasion to criticize the US Human Rights Report, while simultaneously arguing that human rights are fully protected under by the Chavez government. University Professor Vladimir Acosta told the audience that "the U.S. human rights report is insulting" and accused the authors of the document of merely "parroting the opposition." -------------- -------------- OPPOSITION AND PRIVATE MEDIA REACTION LARGELY POSITIVE -------------- -------------- ¶7. (SBU) Opposition-oriented and independent media reaction to the annual Human Rights Report was largely positive and focused on publishing key problem areas mentioned in the document. State and pro-government media, on the other hand, paid considerably less attention and generally ignored the substance of the human rights report. Opposition-oriented Caracas daily "Universal" highlighted the deterioration of human rights mentioned throughout the report, specifically pointing out the criticism mentioned regarding the 26 decree-laws ("leyes habilitantes"),threats against the freedom of press, poor prison conditions, and the disqualification of political candidates prior to the November 2008 elections. The daily, "El Nacional" reported on its front page "Hillary Clinton denounces Corruption in Venezuela", followed by a page two article highlighting corruption, harassment of the press, and politicization of the judiciary. ¶8. (SBU) Opposition oriented "El Nuevo Pais" led with the February 26 headline "Obama accuses Chavez of general corruption", while the more moderate and slightly pro-Government daily "Ultimas Noticias" ran a smaller three-column article on page 20 highlighting that the USG eliminated the use of a "black list of the worst human rights violators" in the human rights report and was also concerned about the state of corruption in the country. Pro-government daily "Diario Vea" chose not to run the report in its February 26 edition, but ran two small articles on page 28 mentioning Bolivia's rejection of the report and Maduro's criticisms in a small article on page 31. -------------- Comment -------------- ¶9. (C) The GBRV's reaction to this year's human right's report has been much stronger than it has been in recent years. President Chavez and other senior GBRV leaders chose not to address the content of the report and instead tried to discredit the messenger and the congressionally mandated reporting requirement. While Chavez's has expressed a desire to improve relations with the United States, he and other GBRV officials are implicitly suggesting that any such improvement in bilateral relations would be contingent on the USG not criticizing Venezuela's deteriorating human rights situation or the GBRV. GENNATIEMPO