Venezuelan defiance to rights treaty could set precedent

[Bacchus39]

http://www.miamiherald.com/579/story/879309.html

Venezuelan defiance to rights treaty could set precedent
Venezuela's refusal to abide by an international court decision could be `a test for the inter-American system.'
By PHIL GUNSON
Special to The Miami Herald
CARACAS -- In open defiance of its treaty obligations, and in violation of its own constitution, Venezuela is refusing to comply with a ruling by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IAHCR), in a case set to put the region's multilateral institutions to the test.

In August, the court found that three senior Venezuelan judges had been dismissed without a fair hearing. It ordered them reinstated and compensated, but the country's supreme court has ruled that the sentence is ''impossible to execute.'' Venezuela's top court has also exhorted the government of President Hugo Chávez to repudiate the American Convention on Human Rights.

''This is the first case of open disobedience,'' said Liliana Ortega, the executive director of the Venezuelan human-rights organization Cofavic.

``And never before in the region has such disobedience come from a civil, rather than a military court. It is a test for the inter-American system.''

`INEXCUSABLE'

The case dates back to 2003, when one of the highest courts in Venezuela, charged with reviewing government actions from the federal to municipal level, was closed and its judges dismissed.

The charge against them was a ''grave, inexcusable error'' in sentencing, in a minor case with no apparent political significance.

But according to one of the judges -- the court's former president Juan Carlos Apitz -- the true motivation for the dismissal was that ``we handed down sentences which the government considered damaging to its interests.''

Two of the five judges accused of the ''inexcusable'' error, who are considered close to the government, were pensioned off instead of being dismissed. Both are now leading members of the supreme court and one, Luisa Estella Morales, is its president.

CUBAN DOCTORS

Just a month before its problems began, Apitz's court had upheld a request from the country's medical federation that Cuban doctors must comply with a law requiring the re-validation of their qualifications before practicing in Venezuela.

Tens of thousands of Cuban doctors staffed primary healthcare centers as part of the Barrio Adentro (Inside the Barrio) program, the first of the so-called social ''missions'' created by the leftist government.

This and other sentences ''made furious and he ordered us sacked,'' Apitz told The Miami Herald. The president referred to the judges in public as ''corrupt'' and ''bandits,'' among other epithets.

DEADLINE

Unable to obtain redress through the Venezuelan justice system, Apitz -- along with fellow judges Perkins Rocha and Ana María Ruggeri -- took their case to the Inter-American Human Rights Commission, a branch of the Organization of American States (OAS).

The Commission referred the case to the IACHR, which found that the three had been denied the right to a fair hearing. It ordered that they be reinstated to the same, or equivalent posts, or given monetary compensation, and that the state publicly retract its accusations against them.

Venezuela was given a six-month deadline, ending next Thursday, to comply with the order. Under the Convention, failure to comply must be reported to the OAS.

`CLEARLY PARTIAL'

As a signatory to the Convention, Venezuela is obliged to obey IACHR rulings. Moreover, its 1999 constitution, drafted under the Chávez government, requires it to adopt ''the necessary measures to comply with decisions'' by international human-rights bodies.