"In Venezuela, torture is not at all a matter of the past"

[naaman fletcher]

While extolling the National Assembly (AN) decision to draft a law to prevent human rights abuses between 1958 and 1998 from remaining unpunished, NGO Red de Apoyo por la Justicia y la Paz (Support Network for Justice and Peace) lamented that the Parliament has limited the scope of the law to prior governments.

"Torture did not finish in 1998, but continues in the country, regrettably," said physician Fiorella Perona, the NGO's spokeswoman. For her remarks, she relied on the findings of the latest report prepared on abuses and ill-treatment by police agents and military officers. Based on the report, last year 36 people were tortured; this means a 12.5% hike above 32 events recorded in 2009.

In its report, the Network also advised that so far this year, 16 additional claims have been received. It put the blame on two primary issues: "political unwillingness" of the legislature to draft a law intended to punish such "shameful" practices even though, as set forth in the fourth temporary provision of the Constitution, it should be done the year following the entry into force of the law, and rampant impunity.

On the latter, attorney Laura Roldán, also a spokeswoman of the NGO, specified that out of 243 events of torture learned since 2003, in none of them involved officials have been punished. "In the absence of punishment, there are not reasons either not to commit again such crimes," she regretted.

http://english.eluniversal.com/2011/06/25/in-venezuela-torture-is-not-at-all-a-matter-of-the-past.shtml

Another way in which Chavez is like W.