HRW Report on Venezuela Slammed

With all the vehement criticism that is levelled at the Venezuelan government, one would have thought Human Rights Watch might have come up with a more substantially damning report, and yet they apparently didn't. One wonders why?

Here is the first section of the news article (I came across it here syndicated in the Jakarta Post).

CARACAS, Dec 22 (IPS) - A Human Rights Watch report on alleged setbacks in human rights in Venezuela since President Hugo Chávez first took office 10 years ago has been severely questioned by 118 academics from the United States and several other countries.

The report, "A Decade Under Chávez: Political Intolerance and Lost Opportunities for Advancing Human Rights in Venezuela", presented in September, "does not meet even the most minimal standards of scholarship, impartiality, accuracy, or credibility," say the Latin America experts in their open letter to the Board of Directors of Human Rights Watch (HRW).

"By publishing such a grossly flawed report, and acknowledging a political motivation in doing so, (HRW’s Americas director José Miguel) Vivanco has undermined the credibility of an important human rights organisation," says the letter dated Dec. 16.

The scholars say the "political motivation" was indicated by Vivanco’s statement that "We did the report because we wanted to demonstrate to the world that Venezuela is not a model for anyone…"

The signatories include experts from the United States like prominent linguist and political writer Noam Chomsky, anthropologists Clara and Charles Briggs, historians Greg Grandin and Charles Bergquist, and filmmaker Oliver Stone, as well as Brazilian sociologist Emir Sader, Argentine political scientist Mario Ayala and professor of political economy at the University of Sydney Tim Anderson.

According to the open letter, the report by the New York-based HRW "makes sweeping allegations that are not backed up by supporting facts or in some cases even logical arguments. For example, the report's most important and prominent allegation is that ‘discrimination on political grounds has been a defining feature of the Chávez presidency.’

"Yet the report does not show, or even attempt to show, that political discrimination either increased under the current government (as compared to past governments), or is more of a problem in Venezuela than in any other country in the world," say the authors.

The academics also point to the HRW report’s "overwhelming reliance for factual material on opposition sources," such as the newspapers El Nacional and El Universal, and the Globovisión TV news station, without clearly identifying them as opposition-aligned.

The open letter says "The major media in Venezuela to this day are practically unmatched in this hemisphere, and indeed most of the world, for their vehement, unfettered, and even vicious, libelous, and violence inciting attacks on the government."

And quoting the HRW report as stating that "Citizens who exercised their right to call for the (presidential recall) referendum…were threatened with retaliation and blacklisted from some government jobs and services," the open letter states that only one "alleged instance of discrimination in government services (is) cited in the entire 230-page report."

That instance involves an allegation reported to the authors of the HRW report in a telephone conversation with the nephew of a 98-year-old woman who was allegedly "denied medicines that she had long received from a state development agency because, as her family was told by the programme secretary, she had signed the referendum petition," say the academics.

"In other words, the (government) Barrio Adentro programme has provided health services to millions of poor Venezuelans each year since 2003, and the authors found one allegation of discrimination involving one person," they add. [cont'd...]

The rest of the article can be read here:
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=45200
Or here:
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/4062

The letter, signed by 118 academics from the United States and several other countries, can be read here:
http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/4051

Here's an opinion piece by Alek Boyd, journalist who supports the content of the HRW report:
http://alekboyd.blogspot.com/2008/12/hrw-v-hugo-chavez-et-sycophants.html

Here is the HRW web page for Venezuela:
http://www.hrw.org/americas/venezuela

Here is the HRW Report on Venezuela:
http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2008/09/18/decade-under-ch-vez

Originally posted by FMF
[/b]With all the vehement criticism that is levelled at the Venezuelan government, one would have thought Human Rights Watch might have come up with a more substantially damning report, and yet they apparently didn't. One wonders why?

Here is the first section of the news article (I came across it here syndicated in the Jakarta Post).

CARACAS, Dec 22 (IPS)[ uela:
http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2008/09/18/decade-under-ch-vez

Originally posted by no1marauder
This material was partially covered [elsewhere]

Originally posted by FMF
With all the vehement criticism that is levelled at the Venezuelan government, one would have thought Human Rights Watch might have come up with a more substantially damning report, and yet they apparently didn't. One wonders why?

Here is the first section of the news article (I came across it here syndicated in the Jakarta Post).

[b]CARACAS, Dec 22 (IPS)[ ...[text shortened]... uela:
http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2008/09/18/decade-under-ch-vez

Maybe things are not all that much worse under Chavez, but perhaps that serves best to illustrate how badly the ones he has replaced have governed.

Originally posted by Merk
And you're just figuring out now that HRW has bias?

Originally posted by FMF
With all the vehement criticism that is levelled at the Venezuelan government, one would have thought Human Rights Watch might have come up with a more substantially damning report, and yet they apparently didn't. One wonders why?

Here is the first section of the news article (I came across it here syndicated in the Jakarta Post).

[b]CARACAS, Dec 22 (IPS)[ ...[text shortened]... uela:
http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2008/09/18/decade-under-ch-vez

Originally posted by FMF
Do you mean HRW deliberately produced an anti-Chavez report that does not meet even the most minimal standards of scholarship, impartiality, accuracy, or credibility, so that it would be discredited in the public eye, and so furthering its pro-Chavez and anti-Anti-Chavez agendas?

No wait.

What [b]do you mean?[/b]

Originally posted by FMF
With all the vehement criticism that is levelled at the Venezuelan government, one would have thought Human Rights Watch might have come up with a more substantially damning report, and yet they apparently didn't. One wonders why?

Here is the first section of the news article (I came across it here syndicated in the Jakarta Post).

[b]CARACAS, Dec 22 (IPS)[ ...[text shortened]... uela:
http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2008/09/18/decade-under-ch-vez

http://alekboyd.blogspot.com/2008/12/hrw-v-hugo-chavez-et-sycophants.html
...
It is not lost that this collectivity of Latin American 'experts' are cheering for a military caudillo that has had no qualms in conducting coups, in ordering massive killings and imprisoning political opponents while it cuddles and protects internationally wanted terrorists and is deeply involved in regional destabilization, corruption and anti democratic practices.

Originally posted by FMF
With all the vehement criticism that is levelled at the Venezuelan government, one would have thought Human Rights Watch might have come up with a more substantially damning report, and yet they apparently didn't. One wonders why?

Here is the first section of the news article (I came across it here syndicated in the Jakarta Post).

[b]CARACAS, Dec 22 (IPS)[ ...[text shortened]... uela:
http://www.hrw.org/en/reports/2008/09/18/decade-under-ch-vez

Originally posted by zeeblebot
http://alekboyd.blogspot.com/2008/12/hrw-v-hugo-chavez-et-sycophants.html
...
It is not lost that this collectivity of Latin American 'experts' are cheering for a military caudillo that has had no qualms in conducting coups, in ordering massive killings and imprisoning political opponents while it cuddles and protects internationally wanted terrorists and is deeply involved in regional destabilization, corruption and anti democratic practices.

Originally posted by shavixmir
Are you describing Venezuela or the US?

Originally posted by zeeblebot
it's from FMF's link ... it's describing Chavez ...

Originally posted by FMF
...

The signatories include experts from the United States like prominent linguist and political writer Noam Chomsky, anthropologists Clara and Charles Briggs, historians Greg Grandin and Charles Bergquist, and filmmaker Oliver Stone, as well as Brazilian sociologist Emir Sader, Argentine political scientist Mario Ayala and professor of political economy at the University of Sydney Tim Anderson.
...