Following an
announcement earlier in April that his government would be withdrawing from the
Inter-American Commission of Human Rights (IAHRC), Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez
confirmed on Tuesday that his administration would also no longer recognize the
IAHRC’s sister organization, the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACrtHR)
with “immediate” effect.
Both organizations are affiliate bodies of the Organization
of the American States (OAS), with the commission recommending and submitting
human rights cases to the court for review.
In a televised address to the public on Tuesday evening, the
Venezuelan head of state confirmed the country’s exit from the human rights tribunal
after accusing the body of “political manipulation” and attacking the South
American nation for “daring to liberate” itself from Washington’s influence.
Chavez’s comments follow a ruling from the IACrtHR which
charged the Venezuelan government with violating the rights of Raul Diaz Pena;
an anti-government terrorist who planted bombs near to the Spanish and
Colombian embassies in Caracas in 2003.
Despite receiving a 9 year sentence in 2008, Pena fled to
the US on conditional release in 2010, where he claimed to be a “political
prisoner”. Last week the IACrtHR ruled that Pena’s prison conditions in
Venezuela had been “inhumane”.
“This Inter-American Court of Human Rights is shameful; it
just pronounced itself in favour of a terrorist and against the Venezuelan
State. That’s why I said to [Venezuelan foreign minister Nicolas Maduro];
‘Nicholas, let’s not wait any more,’ Venezuela is leaving the Inter-American
Court of Human Rights as a matter of dignity,” said Chavez.
The Venezuelan government has had an increasingly difficult
relationship with both the IACrtHR and the IACHR since 2002, when they refused
to condemn a 47 hour coup against Chavez which saw around 100 people killed at
the hands of the newly installed regime.
In November last year, the human rights court also tried to
override a decision by Venezuela’s Supreme Court (TSJ) prohibiting opposition
politician Leopoldo Lopez from holding office due to corruption charges. At the
time, Chavez said the ruling meant “nothing to the left” in Venezuela.
FOREIGN INTERESTS
The human rights bodies’ failure to take a stance on issues
such as the US embargo against Cuba, or to denounce other coups in the region,
including a 2009 coup in Honduras and a recent “express coup” in Paraguay, have
led many of the region’s left-leaning governments to cite the IACrtHR and IACHR
as being representative of the US government’s interests on the Latin American
continent.
Venezuela’s delegate to the OAS, Roy Chaderton, has
frequently accused the Inter-American organizations of acting as a mouthpiece
for Washington in the region, and of backing anti-government actors’ attempts
to “destabilize” the Chavez administration.
The Venezuelan government’s withdrawal from the
Inter-American human rights organization has sparked criticism in the
international press, as well as renewed debate over whether US dominated
institutions such as the OAS are still relevant to Latin America’s changing
political dynamic; with new organizations such as the Community of Latin
American and Caribbean States (CELAC) having been set up without US or Canadian
representation.
“There are two paths (for the OAS), either it dies at the
service of imperialism, or it is reborn to serve the people of America,” said
Bolivian President, Evo Morales, earlier in June, adding that, “(The OAS) is
just about seeing human rights problems in some countries where the president,
the government, does not share the same politics as the United States”.
Venezuela has also called for organizations such as the
CELAC and UNASUR (Union of South American Nations) to set up their own regional
human rights institutions which reflect the “Latin American experience”.
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