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Venezuela Expels 2 Activists

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The Associated Press

Published: September 20, 2008

CARACAS, Venezuela - A leading Human Rights Watch monitor who was abruptly put on the first plane leaving Venezuela early Friday said his expulsion shows the intolerance of President Hugo Chavez's government to criticism.

Jose Miguel Vivanco, the rights group's longtime Americas director, told The Associated Press in Sao Paulo, Brazil, that "we were forcibly expelled from the country as if we were criminals.

"This the first time that this has happened to us in the hemisphere," an exhausted Vivanco said after arriving in Brazil with his deputy director Daniel Wilkinson, an American.

Both were expelled for what Chavez's government called "illegally meddling in the internal affairs" of Venezuela.

"We aren't going to tolerate any foreigner coming here to try to sully the dignity" of Venezuela, Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro declared.

The two were forced onto the first flight out just hours after presenting a report by their New York-based group concluding that "discrimination on political grounds has been a defining feature" of the Chavez presidency.

"What happened is a confirmation of exactly the points that we raised in the report, and it shows the lack of tolerance in the government of President Chavez to criticism of his record on any area," said Vivanco, of Chile.

He said Venezuela expelled him "to avoid dealing with the issues, and distract attention by attacking the messenger."

Chavez had threatened to expel foreigners who come to verbally "attack" his government; this was the first time he did so.

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