CARACAS, Monday February 08, 2010

Politics

A Venezuelan human rights watch based in Miami voiced concern on Monday about the growing number to 57 political prisoners in Venezuela in 2009, and also noted “fast deterioration” of human rights.

“This puts Venezuela as the second country with more political prisoners and a deplorable human rights situation in Latin America and the Caribbean, after Cuba,” Patricia Andrade, the head of Venezuela Awareness Foundation, said.

The NGO released on Monday its annual report entitled “Human rights practices for political reasons in Venezuela.” According to the paper, the Venezuelan government “escalated repression” and criminalized protests to silence dissenting voices.

The report noted that there were 29 detainees for political reasons in 2009, in addition to 28 political prisoners in 2008. However, some of them were released under alternative measures, EFE reported.

“The final number of political prisoners as of December 31, 2009 was of 32 people,” they stated.