GIULIANA CHIAPPE
EL UNIVERSAL

Against human rights
The list of public victims of political discrimination is an extensive one. More than 1,222 people have felt mistreated over the last three and a half years -from January 1st, 2003 to June 15th, 2007. They are victims because their political rights have been harmed. They are public because they dared to disseminate their cases on the media. And they are subject to political discrimination because their rights were abused as a result of their upfront opposition to the current government. All of this violates the international agreements executed by the Republic of Venezuela.

It is not a random number. The 1,222 cases were collected and backed up in digital format by NGO Control Ciudadano para la Seguridad, la Defensa y la Fuerza Armada Nacional (Citizen's Control for Security, Defense and the National Armed Forces), headed by lawyer Rocío San Miguel. They were compiled from the daily editions of four newspapers -El Universal, El Nacional, Últimas Noticias and TalCual. And they were cleared to prevent overlapping stories or individuals. The remarks made by top government officials that showed clearly political discrimination were collected. Within that term, they found 108 such statements made by President Hugo Chávez and 116 by other senior public officials, including the Attorney General and the Ombudsman.

The report totals 436 pages and includes a summary of the compilation, the respective analysis, conclusions and recommendations. The NGO submitted the paper last October 12 to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR). The agency attached to the Organization of American States (OAS) is hearing a number of Venezuelan organizations. In San Miguel's words, the paper gives evidence on systematic political discrimination in Venezuela. Amalio Belmonte, Héctor Fagúndez, María Gracia Moraís and Jesuit priest Luis Ugalde acted as advisors to the paper drafting.  "This work follows strict standards on human rights. Therefore, it is highly reliable. In addition, it is an extraordinary archive available for future generations," said San Miguel, who was also the project coordinator.

In her opinion, political discrimination in Venezuela is a State strategy. "It is a human rights abuse that has been encouraged by government agencies in a widespread, regular way, and even backed by informational tools. However, thus far, neither the State has held responsibility nor compensation for the people affected has been ascertained."

Due to political discrimination, the Venezuelan government would be breaching 13 international agreements, 12 declarations and six constitutional articles.

In order to create the database of victims of political discrimination, the NGO team processed 5,622 news published in four daily newspapers, except for think pieces. Then, they cleared the information and got 1,222 victims from 2003 to June 2007. El Universal reported on 657 cases; El Nacional, 592; Últimas Noticias, 157, and TalCual, 120 cases.

The report was not limited to count news releases. The experts made an additional analysis of nine regulations on political discrimination and 14 related rulings from the Supreme Tribunal of Justice.

Victims and collectivities
The term "victims' collectivities" is fully accepted under the international human rights standards. It means that groups of people are subject to political discrimination just because they belong to a given collectivity. Two of them are the most representative cases:  the signatories in favor of the recall referendum against President Hugo Chávez and about 18,000 ex employees of state-run oil holding Petróleos de Venezuela (Pdvsa). With regard to the former, the personal data of four million people were violated and included in the Tascón Roll, and afterwards in the Maisanta program. The latter were fired in the absence of severance payment or collection of their savings fund. A dozen other collectivities is composed of media owners and journalists, businesspersons, dissenting students and teachers, judges and other clerks in the judiciary, demonstrators, military officers, NGOs, people imprisoned for the events of April 2002, people rejected because they failed to join the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), owners of seized grounds, dissenting trade unions and victims of April 11, 2002.

Further, the report identified ten ambits of political discrimination: voting and political rights; labor and public service; education and culture; military; economy; social area; freedom of expression; judges and other clerks in the judiciary; law enforcement, and miscellaneous, minor areas. According to San Miguel, each of them should be broadly investigated.

The highest number of claims was filed in 2004. From then on, however, public complaints started to decline. According to the NGO spokeswoman, this is because of distrust in institutions, even more if there are court rulings that seem to back such a discriminatory practice for political reasons. They also fear retaliation. The media end by being the voices of the victims who dare to protest. While four daily newspapers reported on 1,222 claims, human rights watchers recorded only 40 cases.

Based on the news match conducted by the NGO, the four above-mentioned newspapers recorded 207 claims in 2003; 506 in 2004; 315 in 2005; 147 in 2006 and 47 claims in the first half of 2007.

Frenzy remarks
In addition to presumed violation of citizens' political rights, and controversial rulings and laws, Control Ciudadano found 224 statements by public servants, regarded as political discrimination.

Out of these remarks, 108 were made by President Chávez in public speeches, addresses to the nation and on his TV and radio show Aló, Presidente. The remainder includes the statements by top government officials, such as ministers, state governors, judges and members of the National Assembly, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice and the National Electoral Council, in addition to the Attorney General and the Ombudsman. Based on the methodology, the NGO picked up only the remarks by those officials who play a key role in the State decision-making, are policy makers and/or make up public opinion. San Miguel deems it particularly serious that at the time of making such statements, these individuals were acting as head of state, head of government and minister of foreign affairs. Therefore, their moves result in international duties and responsibilities and bound the State represented by them.

The remarks made by senior officials and mirrored in the report include demeaning terms, threats, irony, unfounded charges, belligerent phrases and other expressions which, according to San Miguel, comprise a "discourse of hatred" against the President's political opponents.

Rocío San Miguel noted that since 2004, she has applied for a time slot on state-run TV channel VTV to denounce political discrimination. She claimed to have a copy of the letter served and signed by the channel chair. But what she lacks is the answer. After three years, the time slot requested has not been granted, despite the plurality boasted by the government.

Translated by Conchita Delgado
cdelgado@eluniversal.com