New Report of Venezuelan Human Rights Abuses Could Bolster U.S. Sanctions

[bsteadman]

New Report of Venezuelan Human Rights Abuses Could Bolster U.S. Sanctions

Human Rights Watch report documented abuses against more than 150 victims

The Washington Free Beacon
Daniel Wiser
5/6/2014

Excerpt:

The Venezuelan government has conducted systematic human rights abuses against its own people, according to a new report that could bolster the push by U.S. lawmakers to impose sanctions against President Nicolas Maduro’s regime.

The report from Human Rights Watch (HRW), released Monday, documented abuses against more than 150 victims and at least 10 cases of torture. State security forces arbitrarily arrested and detained protesters before subjecting them to further abuses, including beatings, electric shocks, burns, and delayed medical treatment, the report said.

At least 41 people have died since protests against Maduro began in February. HRW investigators in March conducted several interviews with victims, witnesses, medical professionals, journalists, and lawyers for the report.

While some of the protesters have thrown rocks and Molotov cocktails at security forces, the report said forces have frequently abused unarmed and nonviolent protesters. Other victims of abuse were journalists attempting to report on the demonstrations and bystanders not participating in them.

HRW said their findings suggest that the forces’ goal was not to “enforce the law or disperse protests” but “punish people for their perceived political views.”

“The fact that the abuses were carried out repeatedly, by multiple security forces, in multiple locations across three states and the capital—including in controlled environments such as military installations and other state institutions, and over the six-week period Human Rights Watch reviewed—supports the conclusion that the abuses were part of a systematic practice,” the report said.

The report also noted that security forces have collaborated with armed pro-government gangs known as “colectivos” to attack protesters and bystanders. Human rights groups say the colectivos are responsible for as many as a dozen deaths and have adopted the repressive tactics used by Cuba’s communist government.

Some U.S. lawmakers have expressed outrage about the abuses and called for sanctions against Venezuelan government officials and those working on their behalf. Rep. Ros-Lehtinen (R., Fla.) introduced a bill in March that directs President Obama to impose property, financial, and visa sanctions against human rights violators. The bill will be marked-up before the House Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere on Friday.
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http://freebeacon.com/national-secur...u-s-sanctions/

[bsteadman1]

Venezuela to Ration Electricity After Colombia Cuts Gas

Bloomberg News
Pietro D. Pitts, Corina Pons and Anatoly Kurmanaev
5/7/2014

Excerpt:

Ford Motor (F) Co. has halted production in Venezuela, as the country with the world’s largest oil reserves starts rationing electricity and water.

The second-largest U.S. automaker joins competitor Toyota Motor Corp. and Dutch truck-maker CNH Industrial NV (CNHI) in suspending assembly in the South American country because of the difficulty of obtaining dollars to import parts from the government.

Shortages of everything from water to car parts and flour to pregnancy tests come after three months of protests against the government of President Nicolas Maduro that have left at least 41 people dead. The government said today it will start rationing electricity in western Zulia state and water in Caracas as drought drains hydroelectric reservoirs.

“This is another acknowledgment that the country is not working,” Michael Shifter, president of Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, said in a phone interview. “If this spreads to the rest of the country and becomes a nationwide rationing of electricity, it will significantly cut into Maduro’s support.”

Colombia stopped natural gas sales to Venezuela last week to preserve fuel during the periodic regional dry spell known as El Nino. The last electricity crisis prompted by El Nino in 2009 contributed to six straight quarters of negative economic growth in Venezuela.

“We’re running the risk of living a new electricity crisis like the one that started in 2009 if water levels at the Guri dam do not recover in the next four months,” Miguel Lara, a former president of Venezuela’s grid regulator, said today in a telephone interview.

Economic Contraction

Venezuela’s economy will shrink 1 percent this year, according to a median estimate of eleven economists surveyed by Bloomberg last month. This compares to 0.5 percent growth they forecast in February.

Venezuela suspended a nationwide electricity rationing plan in June 2010 after it increased investment in thermoelectric capacity.

Today’s energy-saving plan follows measures to ration water in the capital, where residents are struggling with shortages of basic goods including toilet paper and bottled water.

More than one in four basic goods was out of stock in Latin America’s fourth-largest economy in January, the most since records began, according to the central bank. The bank stopped publishing up-to-date scarcity data in March.

The Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford, which took a $310 million charge in the first quarter for the sharp devaluation of the Venezuelan bolivar, had already cut production in the South American nation because a shortage of hard currency made it difficult to purchase parts.

Shortages, Inflation

“Ford’s production operations have been suspended in Venezuela due to material shortages,” Kristina Adamski, a company spokeswoman, said in an e-mailed statement yesterday. “We have received a commitment from the Venezuela government to help resolve the issues and to get our production up and running by the start of next month.”

Dollar shortages have depressed car sales in Venezuela by 86 percent in a year to March, according to Venezuela’s Automotive Chamber of Commerce. Only 1,674 new cars were sold in the country of about 28 million people that month.

The decline of industry and dollar shortages pushed inflation to 59 percent in March, the highest in the world.

State water utility Hidrocapital posted on its website today a rationing plan for Caracas. No part of the metropolitan area will go completely without water, and the government is preparing rationing plans for other parts of the country, Environment Minister Miguel Rodriguez said yesterday on state television.

‘Critical Time’

The eastern business district of Chacao, home to office towers, restaurants and shopping malls, will not have water service on Tuesdays and Saturdays, according to the plan. On the remaining five days of the week, water service will only be available in the evenings, Hidrocapital said.

The rationing plan will be in place until the wet season starts and water levels stabilize at major reservoirs, Rodriguez said yesterday.

Approval for Maduro fell to a record low 37 percent in April, according to a poll from Caracas-based Datanalisis published by newspaper El Universal May 5. Datanalisis President Luis Vicente Leon declined to confirm or deny the poll.
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View the complete article at:

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-0...-cuts-gas.html