US
blasts human rights records of Cuba, Venezuela
AFP
WASHINGTON
Petroleumworld.com
03 09 06
The United States denounced Wednesday the human rights records
of familiar foes Cuba and Venezuela in an annual report that noted
improvements in Colombia, Washington's top Latin American ally.
The US State Department's human rights report charged that the
record of Cuban President Fidel Castro's communist regime "remained
poor," while the Venezuelan government was criticized for
its treatment of the media and political opponents.
While Cuba has long been a nemesis of the United States, US-Venezuelan
relations have deteriorated in recent years under leftist President
Hugo Chavez, a frequent critic of US policies and a staunch ally
of Castro.
In Venezuela, the State Department said, "Politicization
of the judiciary, restrictions on the media, and harassment of
the political opposition continued to characterize the human rights
situation during the year (2005)."
Venezuela was the only Latin American nation mentioned in a section
of the report about countries where "civil society and independent
media are under siege, fundamental freedoms of expression, association,
and assembly are undermined."
The other nations in that section of the report were Cambodia,
China, Zimbabwe, Belarus and Russia.
Chavez, who was elected seven years ago, has accused the United
States of trying to topple him and plotting his assassination.
He has developed close ties to Castro, whose government's human
rights record was again criticized by the United States.
Havana's "human rights record remained poor, and the government
continued to commit numerous, serious abuses," the report
said. "At least 333 Cuban political prisoners and detainees
were held at year's end."
Cuban citizens were denied the right to change their government,
while "government-recruited mobs" frequently harassed
political opponents, it said.
Detainees, including human rights activists, were beaten and abused
with impunity, the report said.
While the US report highlighted improvements by Colombia's government,
it said impunity continued to be a serious problem in the Andean
nation, which has been plagued by a four-decade-old armed conflict.
The majority of human rights abuses in Colombia were committed
by illegal armed groups, the report said, referring to leftist
guerrillas and right-wing paramilitary groups.
"Although serious problems remained, the government's respect
for human rights continued to improve," the report said.
"However, impunity remained a major obstacle, particularly
for officials accused of committing past human rights abuses,
as well as for certain members of the military who collaborated
with paramilitary groups," it said.
AFP
03 07 06
Copyright
© 2006 AFP. All rights reserved.
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