There's No Oil in Mass Graves

Rick van Opbergen

House Member
Sep 16, 2004
4,080
0
36
The Netherlands
www.google.com
The Government's human rights record continued to be poor in some areas; although there were improvements in some areas, serious problems remain. Human rights violations include extrajudicial killings of criminal suspects by the police and military, an increase in torture and abuse of detainees, failure to punish police and security officers guilty of abuse, arbitrary arrest and excessively lengthy detention, long delays in trials, illegal searches, and corruption and severe inefficiency in the judicial and law enforcement systems. Prison conditions remained harsh, and overcrowding and violence in the prisons were so severe as to constitute inhuman and degrading treatment. In October the ANC declared a prison emergency and set up an interinstitutional commission to address conditions in the prisons. On July 1, the Organic Criminal Procedures Code (COPP) entered into force, replacing the secretive inquisitorial system with an open adversarial system. The authorities fired a number of judges for corruption. In February the Chavez administration reinstated the constitutional provisions of freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention and search without warrant, as well as freedom of movement, which had been suspended in some border areas since June 1994. Violence and discrimination against women, abuse of children, discrimination against the disabled, and inadequate protection of the rights of indigenous people continue to be problems. Child labor persisted, and there were reports of trafficking in children for forced labor. Killings due to vigilante justice increased.
source: www.nationbynation.com
 

Reverend Blair

Council Member
Apr 3, 2004
1,238
1
38
Winnipeg
RE: There

It's still improving though and Chavez is elected, not a dictator. Are there still problems? You bet there are. They have been slowly improving though, and every indication is that those improvements will speed up when attempts at military coups and meddling by the CIA cease.

Something else that can greatly improve the record is trade incentives based on human rights and improved working conditions. That will not happen as long as democracy is under siege in Venezuela though.
 

Rick van Opbergen

House Member
Sep 16, 2004
4,080
0
36
The Netherlands
www.google.com
RE: There

OK, I agree that Chavez is not a real dictator ... though I do think he qualifies for "a regime which violates human rights" .... You said "improvements will speed up when attempts at military coups and meddling by the CIA cease". Can you back that claim?
 

Reverend Blair

Council Member
Apr 3, 2004
1,238
1
38
Winnipeg
RE: There

Many of the civil rights abuses are against people who have been caught trying to undermine the government. One example of that is some of the people who were arrested during the oil strike.

They sabotaged the oil fields, nearly causing an ecological disaster as well as almost destroying the fields. They took over ships...an act of piracy. Chavez was roundly accused of human rights abuses for arresting them, which is ridulous...anybody who did that anywhere would be arrested.

It is thought that they were tortured as well though, mostly to find out who their backers were. I'm not denying the torture took place, it very likely did, but if they hadn't been breaking the law they wouldn't have been arrested and if they hadn't been acting to destroy the oil fields they wouldn't have been suspected of colluding with the CIA etc., so they would have been less likely to be tortured.

Further to that, if there was the threat of automatic sanctions if Venezuela didn't improve its human rights record, it is far less likely that the torture would have taken place.