Neu Leonstein
10-06-2008, 10:37
I'm interested to see just how some of the local Chávistas (if there are any left, he seems to be alienating them at times) justify this one. Sorry about the source, but ultimately it didn't seem to make any of my other usual news outlets.
http://www.economist.com/world/la/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11502234
A police state?
Jun 5th 2008
A draconian charter for spies
IT MAY be an autocracy, but Hugo Chávez's government has never been particularly repressive, let alone a dictatorship. A decree issued late last month with no prior debate threatens to change that. It creates a new intelligence and counter-intelligence system which in the name of national security enlists the entire population in what could potentially amount to a spy network. “This undoubtedly brings us close to...a ‘police state’,” declared Provea, a human-rights group.
The decree authorises police raids without warrant, the use of anonymous witnesses and secret evidence. Judges are obliged to collaborate with the intelligence services. Anyone caught investigating sensitive matters faces jail. The law contains no provision for any kind of oversight. It blurs the distinction between external threats and internal political dissent. It requires all citizens, foreigners and organisations to act in support of the intelligence system whenever required—or face jail terms of up to six years.
“The law establishes vague, generic crimes, which is very dangerous,” in the view of Rocío San Miguel of Citizens' Oversight, an NGO. She says it abolishes the presumption of innocence and places the citizen at the service of the state rather than the other way round. She argues that the law also violates the UN Declaration of Human Rights and the Inter-American Human Rights Convention. According to one of the few remaining independently minded members of Venezuela's supreme court, Blanca Rosa Mármol de León, the “totally repressive law” also violates the constitution and the right to due process.
The government brushes off such criticism as politically inspired by an opposition bent on destabilisation. Ramón Rodríguez Chacín, the interior minister and a former intelligence officer, said there was often “no time” to obtain a court order before police raids. He also said that members of the new intelligence and counter-intelligence bodies will be required to demonstrate “ideological commitment” to Mr Chávez's “Bolivarian revolution”.
The president's popularity is falling, according to most opinion polls. In December he lost a constitutional referendum. Regional elections in November are likely to erode his near-monopoly of power. The suspicion must be that this law is designed to defend a declining regime rather than to bolster the security of Venezuelans.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23831758-36235,00.html
Chavez to correct spy law's 'mistakes'
June 09, 2008
CARACAS: Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has revoked a law he decreed last month creating four spy agencies and a Cuban-style national informants' network, saying the measure contained errors.
"I started listening to criticism, and in the end I think there are some mistakes there, I have no problem acknowledging it. So I decided this morning to correct that law," Mr Chavez said at a function of the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela, held in Caracas.
The law, which the Government said was needed to block US interference in Venezuelan affairs, made it a crime to refuse to co-operate with the intelligence agencies and to publish information deemed "secret or confidential".
That sparked outrage among opposition members and human rights groups which claimed the law denied people due process and the right to inform the authorities anonymously.
Many Venezuelans were alarmed that the law could force them to give information on neighbours or risk prison terms.
Mr Chavez said his Government would remove a clause in the law that required citizens to act as informants if authorities believed they had information on national security threats, or face up to four years in prison for refusing.
For many rights groups, "that amounts to what is known as a police state", said Marino Alvarado of the Venezuelan Program for Education and Action on Human Rights (Provea).
Mr Chavez cited problems with the regulation requiring co-operation from any person or business, whether domestic or foreign, with the Venezualan intelligence services.
"This is a mistake and not a small one," Mr Chavez said.
"I cannot force someone when an intelligence unit asks for co-operation to become an informant, and then if they refuse we put them in jail."
He did not immediately signal when an amended intelligence measure might be forthcoming, but said he would "rewrite it (the law) listening to the criticism".
Interior Minister Ramon Rodriguez had said the law, which created two new military and two new civilian intelligence agencies, would help Venezuela stand up to "things like US interference in Venezuela's internal affairs".
For Mr Chavez, "the law was not bad, but it has some elements that the enemy uses to generate fear".
"We have defeated all the conspiracies of the Venezuelan oligarchy and the US empire with the greatest respect for human rights, and that is how it will continue to be," the President said. "We shall continue to defeat them in a framework that is democratic, humanist and socialist."
Mr Chavez insisted the law was necessary to create a national intelligence system and put an end to the autonomy of the current services, saying they had "dark histories of abductions and torture" under previous regimes.
http://www.economist.com/world/la/displaystory.cfm?story_id=11502234
A police state?
Jun 5th 2008
A draconian charter for spies
IT MAY be an autocracy, but Hugo Chávez's government has never been particularly repressive, let alone a dictatorship. A decree issued late last month with no prior debate threatens to change that. It creates a new intelligence and counter-intelligence system which in the name of national security enlists the entire population in what could potentially amount to a spy network. “This undoubtedly brings us close to...a ‘police state’,” declared Provea, a human-rights group.
The decree authorises police raids without warrant, the use of anonymous witnesses and secret evidence. Judges are obliged to collaborate with the intelligence services. Anyone caught investigating sensitive matters faces jail. The law contains no provision for any kind of oversight. It blurs the distinction between external threats and internal political dissent. It requires all citizens, foreigners and organisations to act in support of the intelligence system whenever required—or face jail terms of up to six years.
“The law establishes vague, generic crimes, which is very dangerous,” in the view of Rocío San Miguel of Citizens' Oversight, an NGO. She says it abolishes the presumption of innocence and places the citizen at the service of the state rather than the other way round. She argues that the law also violates the UN Declaration of Human Rights and the Inter-American Human Rights Convention. According to one of the few remaining independently minded members of Venezuela's supreme court, Blanca Rosa Mármol de León, the “totally repressive law” also violates the constitution and the right to due process.
The government brushes off such criticism as politically inspired by an opposition bent on destabilisation. Ramón Rodríguez Chacín, the interior minister and a former intelligence officer, said there was often “no time” to obtain a court order before police raids. He also said that members of the new intelligence and counter-intelligence bodies will be required to demonstrate “ideological commitment” to Mr Chávez's “Bolivarian revolution”.
The president's popularity is falling, according to most opinion polls. In December he lost a constitutional referendum. Regional elections in November are likely to erode his near-monopoly of power. The suspicion must be that this law is designed to defend a declining regime rather than to bolster the security of Venezuelans.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23831758-36235,00.html
Chavez to correct spy law's 'mistakes'
June 09, 2008
CARACAS: Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez has revoked a law he decreed last month creating four spy agencies and a Cuban-style national informants' network, saying the measure contained errors.
"I started listening to criticism, and in the end I think there are some mistakes there, I have no problem acknowledging it. So I decided this morning to correct that law," Mr Chavez said at a function of the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela, held in Caracas.
The law, which the Government said was needed to block US interference in Venezuelan affairs, made it a crime to refuse to co-operate with the intelligence agencies and to publish information deemed "secret or confidential".
That sparked outrage among opposition members and human rights groups which claimed the law denied people due process and the right to inform the authorities anonymously.
Many Venezuelans were alarmed that the law could force them to give information on neighbours or risk prison terms.
Mr Chavez said his Government would remove a clause in the law that required citizens to act as informants if authorities believed they had information on national security threats, or face up to four years in prison for refusing.
For many rights groups, "that amounts to what is known as a police state", said Marino Alvarado of the Venezuelan Program for Education and Action on Human Rights (Provea).
Mr Chavez cited problems with the regulation requiring co-operation from any person or business, whether domestic or foreign, with the Venezualan intelligence services.
"This is a mistake and not a small one," Mr Chavez said.
"I cannot force someone when an intelligence unit asks for co-operation to become an informant, and then if they refuse we put them in jail."
He did not immediately signal when an amended intelligence measure might be forthcoming, but said he would "rewrite it (the law) listening to the criticism".
Interior Minister Ramon Rodriguez had said the law, which created two new military and two new civilian intelligence agencies, would help Venezuela stand up to "things like US interference in Venezuela's internal affairs".
For Mr Chavez, "the law was not bad, but it has some elements that the enemy uses to generate fear".
"We have defeated all the conspiracies of the Venezuelan oligarchy and the US empire with the greatest respect for human rights, and that is how it will continue to be," the President said. "We shall continue to defeat them in a framework that is democratic, humanist and socialist."
Mr Chavez insisted the law was necessary to create a national intelligence system and put an end to the autonomy of the current services, saying they had "dark histories of abductions and torture" under previous regimes.