A leading Human Rights Watch monitor who was abruptly put on the first plane leaving Venezuela early on Friday said his expulsion showed the intolerance of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s government to criticism.
Jose Miguel Vivanco, the rights group’s longtime Americas director, told reporters in Sao Paulo, Brazil, that “we were forcibly expelled from the country as if we were criminals.”
“This the first time that this has happened to us in the hemisphere,” said an exhausted Vivanco after arriving in Brazil with his deputy director Daniel Wilkinson, an American.
PHOTO: AP
Both were expelled for what Chavez’s government called “illegally meddling in the internal affairs” of Venezuela.
“We aren’t going to tolerate any foreigner coming here to try to sully the dignity” of Venezuela, Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said.
The two were forced out just hours after presenting a report by their New York-based group concluding that “discrimination on political grounds has been a defining feature” of the Chavez presidency.
“What happened is a confirmation of exactly the points that we raised in the report, and it shows the lack of tolerance in the government of President Chavez to criticism of his record on any area,” said Vivanco, a Chilean citizen.
Chavez had threatened to expel foreigners who come to verbally “attack” his government; this was the first time he did so.
At a rally on Friday night, Chavez called Vivanco “one of those characters who go around the world doing the dirty work the US empire orders.”
Chile called the action against one of its citizens regrettable.
Chilean Deputy Foreign Minister Alberto Van Klaveren said Venezuela’s reaction was “totally out of proportion” and that Vivanco has criticized Chile before — something the government in Santiago views as normal.
Vivanco said he and Wilkinson were met at their Caracas hotel after dinner on Thursday by heavily armed policemen.
They were shown on state television gathering the last of their belongings and being driven to the airport in a caravan complete with motorcycle escorts.
Vivanco said he didn’t know where they were headed until they boarded the plane.
More than two dozen human rights groups based in countries from Mexico to Argentina signed an e-mail statement condemning Vivanco’s expulsion.
Nauru has started selling passports to fund climate action, but is so far struggling to attract new citizens to the low-lying, largely barren island in the Pacific Ocean. Nauru, one of the world’s smallest nations, has a novel plan to fund its fight against climate change by selling so-called “Golden Passports.” Selling for US$105,000 each, Nauru plans to drum up more than US$5 million in the first year of the “climate resilience citizenship” program. Almost six months after the scheme opened in February, Nauru has so far approved just six applications — covering two families and four individuals. Despite the slow start —
YELLOW SHIRTS: Many protesters were associated with pro-royalist groups that had previously supported the ouster of Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin, in 2006 Protesters rallied on Saturday in the Thai capital to demand the resignation of court-suspended Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra and in support of the armed forces following a violent border dispute with Cambodia that killed more than three dozen people and displaced more than 260,000. Gathered at Bangkok’s Victory Monument despite soaring temperatures, many sang patriotic songs and listened to speeches denouncing Paetongtarn and her father, former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and voiced their backing of the country’s army, which has always retained substantial power in the Southeast Asian country. Police said there were about 2,000 protesters by mid-afternoon, although
MOGAMI-CLASS FRIGATES: The deal is a ‘big step toward elevating national security cooperation with Australia, which is our special strategic partner,’ a Japanese official said Australia is to upgrade its navy with 11 Mogami-class frigates built by Japan’s Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles said yesterday. Billed as Japan’s biggest defense export deal since World War II, Australia is to pay US$6 billion over the next 10 years to acquire the fleet of stealth frigates. Australia is in the midst of a major military restructure, bolstering its navy with long-range firepower in an effort to deter China. It is striving to expand its fleet of major warships from 11 to 26 over the next decade. “This is clearly the biggest defense-industry agreement that has ever
DEADLY TASTE TEST: Erin Patterson tried to kill her estranged husband three times, police said in one of the major claims not heard during her initial trial Australia’s recently convicted mushroom murderer also tried to poison her husband with bolognese pasta and chicken korma curry, according to testimony aired yesterday after a suppression order lapsed. Home cook Erin Patterson was found guilty last month of murdering her husband’s parents and elderly aunt in 2023, lacing their beef Wellington lunch with lethal death cap mushrooms. A series of potentially damning allegations about Patterson’s behavior in the lead-up to the meal were withheld from the jury to give the mother-of-two a fair trial. Supreme Court Justice Christopher Beale yesterday rejected an application to keep these allegations secret. Patterson tried to kill her
RSS