[R-G] The Failure of Human Rights Watch in Venezuela and Haiti

[Anthony Fenton]

The Failure of Human Rights Watch in Venezuela and Haiti
By: Joe Emersberger - HaitiAnalysis
http://www.haitianalysis.com/2008/2/23/the-failure-of-human-rights- 
watch-in-venezuela-and-haiti

The way Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported on Haiti and Venezuela in  
its 2008 World Report reveals an underlying assumption that the U.S.  
and its allies have the right to overthrow democratic governments.[1]

The Venezuela section of the report said nothing about ongoing  
attempts by the U.S. to overthrow the Chavez government. It is a  
matter of public record that the U.S. funded groups who were involved  
in the coup of 2002 and continued to do so after the coup took place.  
[2]

Rather than denounce or even acknowledge U.S. destabilization efforts  
in Venezuela, HRW continues to complain about the non-renewal of  
RCTV's public broadcasting license. RCTV was one of big television  
networks that aided and abetted the coup. HRW objects that RCTV's  
involvement in the coup "was not proven in a proceeding in which RCTV  
had an opportunity to present a defense." It is impossible to imagine  
a non-farcical proceeding that would conclude otherwise, especially  
when coup's perpetrators thanked the private media, of which RCTV was  
a major part, for its help. Before the coup was reversed Vice-Admiral  
Ramirez Perez told a Venezuelan reporter:

"We had a deadly weapon: the media. And now that I have the  
opportunity, let me congratulate you."

Judging by it reports, HRW is completely uninterested in whether the  
broadcaster that replaced RCTV on the public airwaves, TVes, offers  
viewers a wider variety views or greater accountability. "Freedom of  
the Press Barons" to perpetrate coups appears to be HRW's concern,  
not freedom of expression.[3]

HRW also used the 2008 World Report to criticize, yet again, a  
judicial reform law that was passed by the Chavez administration in  
2004. In contrast, HRW's summary about Haiti said nothing about the  
coup that ousted Jean Bertrand Aristide's democratic government in  
2004; nothing about the subsequent murder of thousands of people who  
supported Aristide's Lavalas movement (the word "Lavalas" does not  
even appear in the summary); nothing about the fact that Haiti's  
police and judiciary remain stacked with appointees from the  
dictatorship of 2004-2006; nothing about Father Gerard Jean Juste,  
the most prominent political prisoner of that period, who continues  
to be hounded Haiti's legal system. [4]

Even if HRW's criticism of Venezuela's judicial reform law of 2004  
were reasonable (and it isn't) it cannot deserve more attention than  
the coup that took place in Haiti and that led to a human  
rightscatastrophe. [5]

On a positive note, HRW's Haiti section of the 2008 World Report  
belatedly gave some attention to the disappearance of Lovinsky Pierre  
Antoine, a prominent Haitian human rights worker and opponent of the  
2004 coup:

"In August 2007 a well known human rights advocate, Lovinsky Pierre- 
Antoine, was abducted. At this writing his whereabouts remain unknown."

Again, the absence of the word "Lavalas" is telling. Pierre-Antoine  
disappeared days after he had announced that he would run for the  
Haitian senate as a Fanmi Lavalas Party candidate. The goal of the  
2004 coup and the massive respiration that followed was to eliminate  
Lavalas movement - the same goal with basically the same perpetrators  
as during the 1991-1994 period about which HRW reported extensively. [6]

At first glance, Human Rights Watch 2008 World Report seems to  
provide courageous and much needed criticism of powerful countries  
like the U.S. HRW is willing to contradict the Bush Administration.  
For example, in a press conference about the 2008 World Report, HRW  
director Ken Roth refused to label Venezuela as a "closed country".  
However, Roth went on to say that human rights "trends were negative  
in Venezuela". Such a conclusion is justified only if one assumes  
that supporting coups and other acts of sabotage against a democratic  
government should have no legal repercussions at all. Meanwhile, in  
Haiti, when human rights trends really were disastrously negative  
thanks to a coup backed by the US France and Canada HRW displayed a  
chilling lack of interest.[7]

US imperialism cannot succeed with Neocons alone. It needs the  
assistance of other countries. It needs the help of transnationals  
and NGOs like Human Rights Watch. [8] This is an important lesson to  
remember from the coups that took place in Haiti and Venezuela.





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NOTES

[1] See Human Rights Watch. World Report. 2008. [hrw.org/wr2k8/pdfs/ 
wr2k8_web.pdf]

[2] See Eva Gollinger's "The Chavez Code" for details on US funding  
of groups that participated in the coup. HRW's response to the 2002  
coup itself was appalling. Al Girodano of Narco New summed it up well  
in an exchange with a HRW employee: "They recognized an illegitimate  
'authority' as legitimate. They failed to call for the removal of  
that dictatorial regime. They failed to call on other nations and the  
OAS to refuse to recognize it. They failed to call for invoking the  
OAS Democratic Charter for the one event it was intended to prevent.  
And after the dust settled and the people restored their elected  
president, HRW and Vivanco tried to change the subject from the  
priority of bringing the coup plotters to justice, with a smokescreen  
over the demonstrations and shootings before the coup." HRW reacted  
similarly after the coup in Haiti in 2004. See note 6.

[3] There is good reason to believe that freedom of expression on the  
public airwaves has been improved by replacing RCTV with TVES James  
Jordan notes: "The new broadcasting license is being given to a  
public station, TVes-Venezuela Social Television, which will run  
shows produced mainly by independent parties. The station will be  
controlled not by the government, but by a foundation of community  
members, with one chair reserved for a government  
representative." [http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2416] For  
more specifics about RCTV's involvement in the coup see [http:// 
www.globalexchange.org/countries/americas/venezuela/2974.html]

[4] For more about the coup and Haiti and its consequences see Kolbe  
and Hudson. Lancet Study. 2006. [http://www.ijdh.org/pdf/Lancet% 
20Article%208-06.pdf] [http://www.haitianalysis.com/2 007/7/31/ 
interview-with-athena-kolbe-co-author-of-lancet-study-on-haiti]  
[http://www.haitianalysis.com/2007/7/31/interview-with-athena-kolbe- 
co-author-of-lancet-study-on-haiti]

[5] The judicial reform law broke the stranglehold of Venezuelan  
elite on the judiciary. For more discussion of the law and HRW's  
objections see Al Giordano's lively exchange with HRW over their  
criticism of the judicial reform law. [http:// 
narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2004/6/17/15422/6410]

[6] For more discussion of how HRW responded to coups in Haiti see  
[http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?ItemID=10011]

[7] See [http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_dade/story/ 
401747.html] ''We did not include Venezuela in the list of closed  
countries because it is not,'' Human Rights Watch executive director  
Kenneth Roth said, unveiling the organization's 2008 World Report,  
which highlighted leaders who claim to be democratic but take  
autocratic measures. Roth acknowledged that ''the trends were  
negative in Venezuela,'' saying Chávez stacked the Supreme Court and  
denied an opposition station a broadcast license, among other excesses.

[8] The priorities displayed in HRW reports are well aligned with  
those of liberal imperialists like Lloyd Axworthy, a former Canadian  
External Affairs minister who sits on HRW's board. See [http:// 
www.hrw.org/about/info/board.html] For more about Axworthy's liberal  
imperialism see [http://www.killingtrain.com/node/397]


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