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Intelligence Laws Rile Venezuelans

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The New York Times

Published: June 3, 2008

CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez has used his decree powers to carry out a major overhaul of this country's intelligence agencies, provoking a fierce backlash here from human rights groups and legal scholars who say the measures will force citizens to inform on one another to avoid prison terms.

The new intelligence law, which took effect last week, requires all Venezuelans and foreigners in the country to comply with requests for information from the agencies, whose secret police and community-monitoring groups are loyal to Chavez. Refusal would result in prison for two to four years for most people and four to six years for government employees.

"We are before a set of measures that are a threat to all of us," said Blanca Rosa Marmol de Leon, a justice in Venezuela's highest court, the Supreme Justice Tribunal, in a rare example of public dissent from a member of the court. "I have an obligation to say this, as a citizen and a judge. This is a step toward the creation of a society of informers."

The sweeping changes to the intelligence apparatus reflect an effort by Chavez to assert greater control over public institutions in the wake of several political setbacks in the last year, including a stinging defeat in December of a constitutional reform package that would have expanded his powers.

Chavez said the new law was intended to guarantee "national security" against "imperialist attacks." He lashed out at its critics, describing them as agents of the "empire," meaning the United States.

Chavez's new intelligence law authorizes his intelligence agencies to use "any special or technically designed method" to intercept and obtain personal communications.

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