Venezuela demands replacement of IACHR Secretary

Western Hemisphere
The Venezuelan government will accept a visit of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) provided only that the organization will replace its Executive Secretary and concede it made a mistake by acknowledging the 2002 coup attempt, said on Monday Venezuelan officials.

Germán Saltrón, a human rights agent of the Venezuelan government, asked for the first time in a hearing the dismissal of IAHCR Executive Secretary Santiago Cantón. He also requested the appointment of a new rapporteur for Venezuela, instead of current rapporteur Paulo Sergio Pinheiro.

Cantón has headed the IACHR for seven years.

"We ask for the replacement and hold out hope that it won't be forever," Saltrón added, as quoted by AP.

Nor will the Venezuelan government accept a visit if the IACHR does not reform its regulations to "ensure transparency, independence and plural thinking inside the system of human rights protection."

Saltrón complained that the IACHR representatives have particularly treated Venezuela in bad terms.

"We cannot say otherwise; just the Commission is biased against our country."

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IISS: The FARC financed Chávez before 1999

10:07 AM. DIPLOMACY. Admired by the Colombian guerrilla after his coup attempt in 1992, the then lieutenant colonel Hugo Chávez Frías received financial support by the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) for his projects after his capture that year. This mostly explains the relationship and "debt" between the parties, as revealed by a paper of the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) of the United Kingdom.