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<h1 class="title">Hectoring Venezuela on Human Rights</h1>
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<p class="byline"> By <span class="author">Diosdado Cabello- The
New York Times</span>, <span class="date">December 18th 2014</span>
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<div class="block-inner"><b><small><small><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/11091">http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/11091</a></small></small></b><br>
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<p>It seemed an unfortunate coincidence that just as <a
href="http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/11/28/crowd-protests-grand-jury-decision-black-friday-st-louis/19624337/">scores
of people demonstrating against police brutality were being
arrested</a> on the streets of New York and other cities, the
United States Congress passed a bill to bring sanctions against
members of my country’s government for alleged human rights abuses
during protests earlier this year.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="389"
data-total-count="754">While Congress accused <a class="meta-loc"
title="More news and information about Venezuela."
href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/venezuela/index.html?inline=nyt-geo">Venezuela</a>’s
government of cracking down on dissent, African-American
communities across the United States expressed outrage over police
killings of unarmed black men. Then, as legislators on Capitol
Hill criticized Venezuelan officials for purported violations of
democratic norms, a Senate report revealed the extent of torture
by the Central Intelligence Agency.</p>
<p id="story-continues-2" class="story-body-text story-content"
data-para-count="559" data-total-count="1313">The antigovernment
protests in our country that began in February resulted in the <a
href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-27336751">deaths
of more than 40 people</a>, many of whom were either
pro-government supporters or innocent bystanders. Of those deaths,
a significant number were caused by antigovernment demonstrators,
who used violence to try to oust our democratically elected
government. Rather than engaging in lawful and peaceful
demonstrations, those protesters used barricades and burning
debris to block streets. They also caused the deaths of several
motorcyclists by stringing wires across roads.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="511"
data-total-count="1824">Our government responded with restraint,
allowing those violent demonstrations to go on for several months.
Every effort was made to ensure that only protesters who directly
violated laws or placed the lives of others in danger were
detained. For example, those responsible for burning public buses
with Molotov cocktails, or who set fire to a public university,
were rightly arrested and charged — as were <a
href="http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2014/05/venezuela-accused-human-rights-violations-201455235553515263.html">17
state security agents accused</a> of using excessive force
against protesters, who are awaiting trial.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="368"
data-total-count="2192">Eventually, our citizens grew tired of
those protests and their incoherent tactics, which only created
chaos and insecurity in our streets. The unrest subsided, and the
opposition lost credibility. The leader of the opposition
coalition <a
href="http://country.eiu.com/article.aspx?articleid=1452113929&Country=Venezuela&topic=Politics&subtopic=Forecast&subsubtopic=Election+watch&u=1&pid=1192549903&oid=1192549903&uid=1">Mesa
de la Unidad Democrática (the Democratic Unity Roundtable)
subsequently resigned</a> after disagreements within the
organization.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="382"
data-total-count="2574">After the death of my good friend, and our
president, Hugo Chávez, almost two years ago, our country has
experienced a series of difficulties, including economic problems.
As president of the National Assembly and the vice president of
the United Socialist Party of Venezuela, which was founded by Mr.
Chávez, I have worked with President Nicolás Maduro to find viable
solutions.</p>
<p id="story-continues-3" class="story-body-text story-content"
data-para-count="461" data-total-count="3035">To respond to the
falling price of oil, which underpins our economy, <a
href="http://www.wsj.com/articles/venezuela-cuts-spending-as-oil-prices-plummet-1417554366">we
are cutting public spending by 20 percent</a>. But we will not
cut funding to our key social programs, which provide essential
medical care, education and welfare to our citizens. We are also
taking measures to battle the high inflation that has plagued our
nation over the past two years, and we are battling to end the
black-market dollar trading that sabotages our foreign exchange
system.</p>
<p id="story-continues-4" class="story-body-text story-content"
data-para-count="478" data-total-count="3513">Some months ago, <a
href="http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/21/world/americas/venezuela-protests/">Mr.
Maduro extended an olive branch to the Obama administration</a>
by naming an ambassador to the United States, and inviting
Washington to name an ambassador to Venezuela. <a
href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-26599312">Mr.
Maduro also named me to lead a high-level commission</a> to
repair relations with the United States government. To date,
President Obama has neither accepted our ambassador, nor offered
his own in return. And there has been no sign from Washington of
any intent to engage with my commission.</p>
<p id="story-continues-5" class="story-body-text story-content"
data-para-count="268" data-total-count="3781">Imposing sanctions
against a country that has caused no harm to the United States is
no way to move toward a constructive relationship. Unilateral
sanctions against other nations have usually failed and have been
rejected by a majority of the international community.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="503"
data-total-count="4284">In Cuba, a decades-long trade embargo
caused great hardship but failed to realize the United States’
objective of ending the Cuban revolution. The United Nations’ many
votes to lift the embargo exposed how isolated Washington had been
in its policy. It would be regrettable if sanctions against
Venezuela, first opposed by the White House, now became a way for
the Obama administration to appease those in Congress who oppose
the historic restoration of relations between the United States
and Cuba.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="193"
data-total-count="4477">A majority of Venezuelans, regardless of
party affiliation, reject these sanctions and view them as
baseless aggression. We will not be bullied by efforts to weaken
or discredit our government.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="278"
data-total-count="4755">We have tried to move toward improving
relations with the Obama administration, but have been rebuffed.
We can only wonder if the timing of these sanctions is an attempt
to distract public opinion from the exposure of rights violations
by United States law enforcement officers.</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="278"
data-total-count="4755">***</p>
<p class="story-body-text story-content" data-para-count="278"
data-total-count="4755">Diosdado Cabello is the president of the
National Assembly of Venezuela.</p>
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