Germán Mundaraín, the Venezuelan Ambassador to the United Nations in Geneva, exercised on Tuesday his right to reply to the United States during a session of the Council on Human Rights. The diplomat claimed that the United States "defames progressive peoples and governments" when pointing to alleged human right abuses. During the 14th UN session, the UN delegate made some remarks against several countries, including Venezuela, a communiqué of the...

The Venezuelan government expressed on Thursday its "blank refusal" to a resolution from the UN Security Council on new political and economic sanctions against Iran, one day after Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez asked for "respect" for his allied nation. The UN Security Council "lashes out again at the dignity" of Iran, by imposing sanctions on "the fellow Iranian people and their brave government" in a decision which "disregards the...

Venezuela will spend $82 million on a second batch of Chinese K-8 military training aircraft, President Hugo Chavez said on Sunday. Chavez's socialist government has ordered 18 of the light attack and training planes from China, and the Latin American country received the first six jets in March. "We have approved $82 million for the second batch of Chinese-made K-8 jets. The aircraft are for the security and defense of the country," the Venezuelan president said during his regular...

In a paper entitled "ETA members emigrate to Venezuela," it is said that the Spanish government works to "suffocate" the terrorist group in Latin America. "Therefore, they have deemed it strategic that representatives of the Interior in Caracas need to be experts in ETA terrorism. The Civil Guard has already sent a commander, who acts as attaché, while the Police has yet to appoint a commissioner who will act as counsel. Events such as the return of the...

Amnesty International has urged the Peruvian authorities to drop unsubstantiated charges against a prominent Indigenous leader, who was detained on his return to the country this week after almost a year in Nicaragua. Segundo Alberto Pizango Chota is accused of being responsible for violence between Indigenous rights activists and police, in which 33 people were killed and at least 200 injured in Bagua, northern Peru, in June last year. However, at the time of the violence Alberto...

Three years after the first shutdown of private TV station Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV), non-governmental organization Un Mundo Sin Mordaza (A World without censorship) conducted a national survey in major Venezuelan cities as part of an initiative called "Having an opinion is not a crime." At that time, the government refused to renew a broadcast concession of private TV channel Radio Caracas Televisión. The poll probed into people's view of the Venezuelan...

A group of ten Republican senators want Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to designate Venezuela as a "state sponsor of terrorism." In a letter to Clinton, the senators, led by George LeMieux of Florida and John Ensign of Nevada, expressed the need to elevate Venezuela to the harsher status in the State Department's annual evaluation of the terrorist threats posed by foreign countries. By designating Venezuela as a state sponsor of terrorism, the State Department would place...

There is in the country "a deep crisis" in the field of human rights, Marcos Gómez, the director of Amnesty International of Venezuela, said. In presenting its annual report, the organization highlighted that the country is going through a high level of violence, partly due to widespread lack of control of weapons in the people's hands and the government violent wording. They also stressed "existing inability in the judiciary to administer justice," as well...

Amnesty International has called on the Mexican authorities to release three community leaders who began a hunger strike in protest at their detention for taking part in a campaign against high electricity prices. Community leaders Sara López, Joaquín Aguilar and Guadalupe Borja were detained in July 2009 over their involvement in the National Movement against High Electricity Tariffs in the eastern state of Campeche. On Friday 14 May 2010, the three pledged to refuse...

A Colombian newspaper disclosed a report issued by the Colombian intelligence agency according to which training camps are based in the states of Apure, Monagas, and Aragua. They allegedly accommodate members of Basque terrorist group ETA, some Iranian groups, and members of FARC’s Front 59. Members of Basque terrorist group ETA and "some Iranian groups" are allegedly trained by members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in camps located in Venezuela,...