La CIDH dijo estar "sumamente preocupada" ante la posibilidad de que las milicias asuman tareas de control del orden público (Eduardo Fuentes/archivo)

Violence and public insecurity, the climate of intolerance toward different views and obstacles that prevent opponents an equal participation in domestic elections, worry the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), which deems that such situations "contribute to the weakness in the rule of law" in Venezuela.

However, the human rights branch of the Organization of American States warned that the lack of an independent judiciary is one of the weakest points of democracy in Venezuela, because this situation "seriously hinders the free exercise of human rights" in Venezuela.

"It is this lack of independence that has allowed the use of the State's punitive power in Venezuela to criminalize human rights defenders, judicialize peaceful social protest, and persecute political dissidents through the criminal system," the IACHR said in its report "Democracy and Human Rights in Venezuela," published on Wednesday in Washington.

In the 322-page report, the autonomous panel created by the OAS, reiterated its concern that only 936 out of a total of 1,896 judges in Venezuela were regular judges; and that 100 percent of Venezuelan prosecutors have a provisional status, that is to say "they do not enjoy tenure in their positions and can be easily removed when they make decisions that could affect government interests."

The report mentions the case of Fanny Becerra Casanova, who served as Tenured Judge of the First Tribunal of First Instance in Functions of Judgment in Táchira, who was in charge of the proceedings against journalist Gustavo Azócar. Becerra was dismissed by the Judicial Commission a week before the end of the public trial. The proceeding was nullified and was resumed later.

A justifiable concern
Crime is one of the issues that remain a cause of alarm for the IACHR, as exposed in the report. The Commission welcomed recent efforts to halt crime (the establishment of the National Police Force). However, it said that "in many cases, the State's response to public insecurity has been inadequate and, on occasions, even incompatible with respect for human rights." This is a clear reference to the more than 6,000 extrajudicial killings in Venezuela since 2000.

The IACHR condemned the proceedings opened to more than 2,200 citizens for participating in demonstrations and dismisses the government's arguments according to which street demonstrations seek to overthrow it.

Although the government claims that Venezuela has full freedom of expression, the IACHR noted the existence of "cases of prior censorship" and set as examples the prohibition to Centro de Divulgación del Conocimiento Económico para la Libertad (Cedice) and the Asociación Civil para el Fomento y Promoción del Esfuerzo (Asoesfuerzo) to broadcast publicity contrary to a proposed law of social ownership in 2009.

Source: ElUniversal.com