Rights group concerned about new Venezuela gov’t agency that will monitor information

Rights group criticizes new Venezuela info office

CARACAS, Venezuela — Human Rights Watch expressed concern Wednesday about an office recently created by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez that will monitor and restrict information released by government agencies.

The group warned in a statement that it believes the Center for Situational Studies of the Nation — will have “broad powers to limit public dissemination” of information it deems confidential.

Government opponents have expressed similar concerns.

Details of the new agency, a division of the Justice Ministry, are still vague. According to a June 1 decree creating it, the office will “compile, process and analyze” information on any subject “of national interest.” Its appointed chief will have the authority to declare information “reserved, classified or of limited release.”

But officials have not elaborated on precisely what powers the office will have, or when it will begin operating.

Jose Miguel Vivanco, Human Rights Watch’s Americas director, said Chavez could use it to control public debate.

“It’s a quite blatant censorship effort,” Vivanco said in a telephone interview from Washington. Based on the wording of the decree, he said, “It’s extremely broad. It’s up to the office to determine when a subject has to be confidential … or off-limits.”

Vivanco said he knows of no similar entity in Latin America in recent years.

There was no immediate government response to Human Rights Watch’s criticism.

The New York-based human rights organization is one of several that have clashed with Chavez’s government in recent years, criticizing arrests and legal cases against opposition figures.