US Senator and former presidential candidate John McCain (R-AZ) said that Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez is "undemocratic" because he requested a new enabling law that allows him to pass laws by decree without the approval of the National Assembly. "His latest recent move to obtain powers to rule by decree is certainly undemocratic," the Republican Senator said when asked whether he believed that "Venezuela is becoming a dictatorship," according to...

Extraordinary ruling powers granted to Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez by a lame duck National Assembly are "an anti-democratic measure" that violates the Inter-American Democratic Charter of the Organization of American States (OAS), said Arturo Valenzuela, the US Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. United States is willing to have a "candid dialogue" with Venezuela. Therefore, Washington "regrets" that the Venezuelan...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez asked parliament Tuesday to grant him sweeping legislative powers, for the fourth time since he took office in 1999. The request comes just weeks before a new national assembly with a much greater opposition presence is due to be inaugurated. Opposition leaders slammed the move and said the government was using the current flood disaster, which has affected hundreds of thousands of people, as an excuse to concentrate yet more power in the presidency. ...

In the context of the meetings held on November 15 and 16, the political parties which are members of Socialist International (SI) agreed that with his statements, General Rangel Silva “violates democratic principles and the political rights of citizens” Socialist International, a worldwide organization of social democratic, socialist and labor parties, which met in Paris on November 15 and 16, declared that the statements made by Major General Henry Rangel Silva, the head of...

The International Socialist unanimously approved a report submitted by an international mission of the organization that visited the country in January. The report condemns the "authoritarian regime established in Venezuela." According to the document, which examines different aspects of the Venezuelan situation, Venezuela's democracy is threatened "by an authoritarian regime that uses shamelessly and regularly government institutions to put an end to democratic...

Elections scheduled for December 6 will mark the official end of the Bolivian democracy.A dictatorship that fosters the production and distribution of cocaine is not apt to enjoy a positive international image. But when that same government cloaks itself in the language of social justice, with a special emphasis on the enfranchisement of indigenous people, it wins world-wide acclaim. This is Bolivia, which in two weeks will hold elections for president and both houses of congress. The...

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez specifically ordered Ortega Díaz and the Supreme Justice Tribunal to “comply with their duty” and called on officialdom to be “agile” in acting against media organizations that were “poisoning” the population. That was what they were there for, Chavez said, and if not “they should resign so that somebody with courage takes over.” CARACAS - Both sides in the clash between the government and...

Amnesty International welcomes the release of Mexican prisoner of conscience Jacinta Francisco Marcial, who was held in prison for three years after being falsely accused of kidnapping six federal agents. The mother of six, an Otomí Indigenous woman from Santiago Mexquititlán in the Mexican state of Querétaro, was sentenced to 21 years' imprisonment in December 2006. Amnesty International is calling for a full review into her unfounded prosecution and for her to...

As of 18 August 2009, Amnesty International considers Jacinta Francisco Marcial a prisoner of conscience. This appointment recognizes the innocence of Jacinta while declaring her a person imprisoned only for being an indigenous women with limited access to justice. Thus, the world’s largest movement for the defense and protection of human rights calls on the Mexican authorities to free Jacinta immediately and without conditions. Jacinta, from the Otomi...

The Simon Wiesenthal Center condemned the appointment of Jorge Palacios as the Chief of the new Buenos Aires Metropolitan Police. In a letter to Minister of Justice and Security of Buenos Aires Town Hall, Guillermo Montenegro, the Center’s Director for Latin America, Sergio Widder, reminded that “Chief Palacios was involved in the less transparent period of the investigation of the AMIA bombing, and accusations of covering up are pending against him.” “To appoint...