Venezuelan Opposition Uses “Violent Methods” to Begin its Campaign
On Sunday six people were injured during violent and armed attacks by opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski’s bodyguards as he led a campaign march in one of Caracas’ poorer areas, Cotiza. The government and Cotiza community members have said the incident is part of the opposition’s strategy, whereas the opposition blamed pro-Chavez forces for it.
Capriles lead a small march and car parade into Cotiza on Sunday morning at the same time as United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) members in the area were conducting a door knocking campaign.
Witnesses say there were verbal attacks by both sides, but then a man in a red shirt, as well as Capriles’ body guards, fired shots, causing minor injuries.
One resident, who in talking to local press asked to remain anonymous, said his son went out into the street to see what was happening and was hit by a bullet in the arm. PSUV members took him to a Mission Barrio Adentro hospital.
Opposition legislator Ismael Gracia’s adult son was also slightly injured, and he is accusing PSUV members of shooting at him.
Many community members shot videos and photos of the situation and through them it has become clear that the bodyguards, who were riding motorbikes without number plates, were Miranda state police.
Capriles is the governor of Miranda state, which covers the eastern part of greater Caracas. Cotiza, however, is in the centre is in the centre-north of Caracas, in the Capital District, also known as the Libertador municipality, which is a federal entity. The mayor of Libertador is a member of the PSUV.
According to the minister for internal affairs, Tareck El Aissami, Miranda state police entered Libertador without authorisation, and wielding firearms. He accused them of going into the area with a “violent agenda” and the intention to “create a show... create news”.
One of the police at Capriles’ march was Humberto Duque Cardenas, intelligence chief of the Miranda police, according to journalist Mario Silva. AVN reports that Duque participated in illegally detaining the minister for justice and internal affairs during the 2002 coup against President Hugo Chavez.
“We’re investigating and identifying [those responsible], those with guns have to be taken to court,” El Aissami said. He explained that the constitution guarantees the right for public and private meetings, but not with weapons, and that the Police Service Law says that police should only carry out their functions within their specified territory.
El Aissami also encouraged the legislator’s injured son to go to court with proof of who was responsible.
An “infiltration”
One Cotiza community member, Dominga Ramos, told press she saw men who were accompanying Capriles change their shirts from yellow to red just before their march neared the area where PSUV activists were.
Journalist Oswaldo Rivero, who was covering the PSUV campaign in the area and was witness to the events, said Capriles’ men “infiltrated” the area by wearing the red t-shirts. Various videos have captured the man in the red t-shirt firing into the air.
The PSUV house visits are done by members of those communities, yet witnesses say they hadn’t seen the people in red t-shirts before.
According to other PSUV activists, Capriles’ security attacked various activists in an attempt to provoke a reaction, before the main incident occurred.
Video footage also shows one of Capriles’ body guards with a handmade grenade, which he later stored in one of the cars in Capriles campaign car parade.
Rivero also criticised the opposition’s coverage of the event for only mentioning Garcia’s son, and not the five local residents who were injured “by his agents”.
“The neighbourhood was calm until [Capriles and his crew] arrived,” said Rivero.
One resident, Madeleine Ortiz, told Ciudad Caracas, “They tried to repeat what happened on Llaguno bridge [during the 2002 coup], making Chavez supporters look like the criminals, like the violent ones. Nothing happened though because no one in Cotiza fell for their games”.
PSUV member and community leader Ismenia Coronado also argued that the event was premeditated, “Look, Capriles’ people came armed, it’s not true what they [the opposition] are saying, that it was us. They came here firing into the air and the people reacted”.
Opposition claims
After the events Capriles claimed that, “Some PSUV men used shots to try to stop the visit to Cotiza. Even so, the people came out to welcome us”. Video footage however shows the man in the red t-shirt aiming towards community members, not towards Radonski’s team, and many community members have told various press agencies that the “violence came from Capriles’ body guards” and “they were dressed in red to confuse us”.
Garcia also went to the public prosecutor’s office yesterday to request an investigation into the national government, accusing it of “financing” “violent groups”.
Some private Venezuelan press have portrayed the event as an attack against Capriles. Most have quoted Garcia, who told press that “the bullet that hurt my son ... was close to killing the presidential candidate who will confront Chavez in October”. El Nacional headlined today with “Capriles is the first presidential candidate attacked since 1978” and argued that the events were designed to stop the “free movement” of Capriles so he could “present his proposals”.
Tal Cual said the “political criminals in red t-shirts “attacked Capriles’ march and said Chavez’s supporters are “aggressive” and the situation was “probably arranged by the PSUV leadership” without explaining how such violence could help its campaign.
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By Tatsuo, Miyachi at Mar 10, 2012 22:00 PM
Organization of American States report rebukes Venezuela on human rights
By Juan Forero
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, February 25, 2010; A10
The human rights branch of the Organization of American States issued a blistering 300-page report Wednesday against Venezuela, saying that the oil-rich country run by President Hugo Chávez constrains free expression, the rights of its citizens to protest and the ability of opposition politicians to function.
The report, compiled and written by the OAS's Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, reflects growing concern in the region over how one of the organization's member states is governed. The document holds legitimacy for human rights investigators and diplomats because it has the imprimatur of the commission, which is run independently from the OAS and largely free of its political machinations.
"This is a professional report, and the commission has been progressively more critical about Chávez over the years," said Michael Shifter, an analyst who tracks Venezuela for the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington. "There's a growing sense of the greater risks of human rights abuses and authoritarianism in Venezuela."
The commission has in the past issued major reports about serious violations in a number of countries, notably targeting the military junta in 1970s-era Argentina and the quasi-dictatorship of Alberto Fujimori in Peru.
Chávez has railed against the OAS as beholden to the interests of the United States. Venezuela declined to cooperate with the commission, its members said, prompting commissioners -- jurists and rights activists from Antigua, Argentina, Brazil, Chile, El Salvador and the United States -- to hold hearings and seek out Venezuelan activists and politicians to compile information about the suspected abuses.
The report asserts that the state has punished critics, including anti-government television stations, demonstrators and opposition politicians who advocate a form of government different from Chávez's, which is allied with Cuba and favors state intervention in the economy.
The report outlines how, after 11 years in power, Chávez holds tremendous influence over other branches of government, particularly the judiciary. Judges who issue decisions the government does not like can be fired, the report says, and hundreds of others are in provisional posts where they can easily be removed.
The commission said some adversaries of the government who have been elected to office, such as Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma, have seen their powers usurped by Chávez.
"The threats to human rights and democracy are many and very serious, and that's why we published the report," Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, a member of the commission who specializes in Venezuela, said by phone from his home in Brazil.
Chávez did not have an immediate response to the report. But in a phone interview Wednesday morning, Roy Chaderton, Venezuela's ambassador to the OAS, said the commission had become a "confrontational political actor instead of an advocate for defending human rights."
Chaderton said the commission had shown support for a failed 2002 coup against Chávez -- an accusation denied by the commission -- and charged that its members had dedicated themselves to weakening progressive social movements in Latin America. "They have become a mafia of bureaucrats who want to play a bigger role in the efforts against Venezuela's government," Chaderton said.
The commission, in compiling the report, incorporated responses from Venezuelan authorities to written questions. The government says it permits protests and opposition groups, while focusing much of its energy on improving Venezuelans' standard of living.
Pinheiro said the commission recognized the government's progress in areas such as reducing poverty. But Pinheiro said that there can be "no trade-off" between political and economic progress. He said the commission's hope is that the Venezuelan government will make improvements based on the report's recommendations.
"This report, instead of isolating Venezuela, is a call for Venezuela to come on board," Pinheiro said.
Others who track developments in Venezuela, though, said Chávez is prone to a disproportionate response when criticized. After releasing a critical report about Chávez two years ago, José Miguel Vivanco, the Americas director for Human Rights Watch, and a fellow investigator for the group were detained at their Caracas hotel and escorted by armed agents onto a Brazil-bound flight.
"It would be nice to think the Chávez government would pay attention to the report," Vivanco said. But he noted that the president had "responded to all such criticism by attacking its critics, often using conspiracy theories and far-fetched allegations to distract attention from their own human rights practices."
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