CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela brusquely expelled two activists from U.S.-based Human Rights Watch on Friday who criticized President Hugo Chavez for political intolerance and for eroding democracy during nearly 10 years in power.
State television played a video of officials reading an expulsion order to activists Jose Miguel Vivanco and Daniel Wilkinson, who were filmed packing their bags and being escorted on to a plane that took off just after midnight.
The move highlighted the leftist leader's intolerance of international criticism and will further strain ties with the United States, Venezuela's main oil customer, a week after Chavez also ejected the U.S. ambassador.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Venezuela an autocracy on Thursday.
Human Rights Watch is an independent group, but Chavez says it collaborates with the Bush administration in a campaign to unseat him and ignores his government's advances in reducing poverty.
"These groups, dressed up as human rights defenders, are financed by the United States," said Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro. "They are aligned with a policy of attacking countries that are building new economic models."
Human Rights Watch is also fiercely critical of the rights record of Venezuela's neighbor Colombia, whose right-wing government is a close Washington ally. Politically motivated murder is common in Colombia.
PHONES CONFISCATED
The activists said they were forced to hurriedly check out of their hotel by the police around midnight. Government officials said they were put on the first flight leaving Caracas. Continued...
Logo de HRW.


El Presidente de Venezuela, Hugo Chávez, expulsó el jueves a la delegación de la ONG de derechos humanos Human Rights Watch (HRW), tras esta acusarlo de erosionar la democracia gravemente en sus casi 10 años de ejercicio en el poder.

De acuerdo con el comunicado por parte del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores venezolano, HRW habría "violentado la Constitución y las leyes ... agrediendo a las instituciones de la democracia venezolana e inmiscuyéndose ilegalmente en los asuntos internos del país".

El Presidente Hugo Chávez.

Por esto José Miguel Vivanco, jefe de HRW en las Américas, junto con el estadounidense Daniel Wilkinson, también miembro de HRW, fueron expulsados por el gobierno venezolano.

El comunicado continúa alegando que "hacer respetar la soberanía nacional ... frente a agresiones de factores internacionales que responden a intereses vinculados y financiados por las agencias del gobierno de los Estados Unidos de América, que tras el ropaje de defensores de derechos humanos despliegan una estrategia de agresión inaceptable para nuestro pueblo".

La ONG había publicado un informe en el cual se acusaba a Chávez por haber "debilitado las instituciones democráticas y las garantías de derechos humanos" en un intento por "contener a la oposición política", según informa AFP.

Entre otras declaraciones, HRW acusaba en su informe a Chávez por "controlar el poder judicial" y "limitar la libertad de prensa", siempre desestimando y recurriendo a una repetida "discriminación" para con sus opositores.