Chavez says top rights body ‘mafia’

CARACAS, Friday

President Hugo Chavez has said Venezuela will withdraw from the top human rights body in the Western Hemisphere, calling it a “mafia” and its leader “excrement” after a report criticizing his record.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights released a scathing 300-page report on Wednesday that says freedom of expression and the right to peaceful protest had been curtailed.

The group, part of the Organisation of American States, said “political intolerance” prevails in the South American country, a major supplier of oil to the United States.

‘Excrement’

In a conference with foreign journalists, Chavez read out loud a letter written by Commission head Santiago Canton during a short-lived coup against him in 2002 and which seemed to recognize the legitimacy of the officials who replaced him. “Santiago Canton, executive excrement, pure excrement,” Chavez said.

“We will prepare to denounce the agreement by which Venezuela is a member of this nefarious Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and we will leave it. What for? It’s not worth it, it’s a mafia there.”