US embassy cable - 05CARACAS1012

C O N F I D E N T I A L  CARACAS 001012 
 
SIPDIS 
 
 
NSC FOR CBARTON 
USCINCSO ALSO FOR POLAD 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/25/2014 
TAGS: PHUM, PGOV, KJUS, VE 
SUBJECT: HUMAN RIGHTS GROUPS DEFEND FORMER IAHRC PRESIDENT 
AYALA 
 
 
Classified By: POLITICAL COUNSELOR ABELARDO A. ARIAS FOR REASONS 1.4 (d 
) 
 
------- 
Summary 
------- 
 
1.  (C)  Venezuelan prosecutors postponed until April 14 the 
opening of a formal investigation against former 
Inter-American Commission on Human Rights President Carlos 
Ayala.  All the major Venezuelan human rights groups and 
Human Rights Watch rallied to support Ayala April 5, when he 
went to appear before prosecutors, and publicly called the 
investigation an attempt to intimidate human rights groups in 
Venezuela and interfere with Ayala's work.  Ayala, the 
President of the Andean Commission of Jurists and an 
important human rights lawyer in Venezuela, told poloff March 
29 he believes the intention of the prosecutors' action is to 
get a judge to forbid him from leaving the country, and so 
impede his work on complaints about the human rights 
practices in Venezuela before the IAHRC.  While he has not 
been officially advised of the reason for his summons, Ayala 
speculates it involves his alleged role in the sort-lived 
government of Pedro Carmona in April 2002.  End Summary. 
 
---------------- 
Ortega vs. Ayala 
---------------- 
 
2.  (C)  Prosecutor Luisa Ortega called former Inter-American 
Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) President Carlos Ayala to 
her office April 5 to formally notify him he was under 
investigation.  After waiting three hours, Ayala was given 
another citation to appear on April 14.  While Ortega has not 
formally informed Ayala why he is to be investigated, Ayala 
told poloff March 29 that he assumed he would be charged with 
conspiracy for his alleged role in writing the Carmona Decree 
in April 2002.  This accusation is based on one mention in 
the autobiography of Pedro Carmona, where Carmona names Ayala 
as one of eight persons whose advice "was heard."  Ayala said 
he was in Miraflores Palace for 12 minutes on April 12, 2002, 
and told Carmona that he was crazy, the decree illegal, and 
the events which were unfolding constituted a coup.  He then 
spent several hours in DISIP headquarters, trying to win the 
release of then National Assembly Deputy Tarek William Saab, 
a leading supporter of President Hugo Chavez who had been put 
in custody temporarily. 
 
------------ 
Carlos Ayala 
------------ 
 
3.  (C)     Ayala is President of the Andean Commission of 
Jurists, and a Professor of Public Law at the Catholic 
University in Caracas.  He served as a commissioner on the 
IACHR from 1996 to 1999, serving as its president during his 
last year.  Ayala described himself to poloff as a doer 
rather than a talker, working behind the scenes to strengthen 
the various small and weak human rights groups active in 
Venezuela.  Ayala said his most important role is as an 
intermediary before the IACHR, helping shepherd cases through 
the IACHR bureaucracy.  Ayala said he suspected that the GOV 
intention in citing him on these spurious charges was to 
obtain an order from a judge prohibiting him from traveling 
outside Venezuela, and so disrupt his work with the IACHR. 
Ayala noted that he had dispersed some of his work among 
other lawyers, in anticipation that this might happen, so 
that a move against him would not lead to a paralyzation of 
the cases before the IACHR.  Ayala said he had many good 
friends in the international human rights community, and 
expected that his case would generate outrage within 
Venezuela, and internationally. 
 
--------------- 
HR Groups React 
--------------- 
 
4.  (U) Representatives of the most important human rights 
groups in Venezuela protested in front of the Attorney 
General's Office on April 5, in support of Ayala.  In a 
statement released that day, COFAVIC, the Vicariate of Human 
Rights, and two smaller human rights groups highlighted 
 
 
Ayala's critical role supporting human rights groups in 
Venezuela, especially with regard to the IACHR.  The 
organizations called the potential investigation an attempt 
to "openly criminalize the defense of human rights," 
especially the use of the Inter-American system.  Pedro 
Nikken, former President of the Inter-American Human Rights 
Court told reporters April 5 that the prosecutor's actions 
were one more example of the use of the Attorney General's 
Office as an instrument of political revenge by government 
supporters. 
 
5.  (U) Human Rights Watch (HRW) called on Attorney General 
Isaias Rodriguez to suspend the investigation immediately, 
saying it was a "clear case of political persecution against 
someone who has been an efficient critic of the Chavez 
government's human rights record."  HRW also notes that the 
Ayala case "shows the intention of the Venezuelan authorities 
to use the penal system as an instrument of harassment 
against those who criticize the government."  Rodriguez 
responded April 6 calling the HRW statement a "grave 
interference in the internal affairs of the country." 
Rodriguez also denied that the Attorney General's Office was 
engaged in, or would engage in, political prosecutions. 
 
------- 
Comment 
------- 
 
6.  (C)  Ayala's assessment of the Attorney General's motive 
in bringing the case against him is probably correct. 
Several important cases have recently been accepted by the 
IACHR, including one which will focus attention on the GOV's 
attack on judicial independence.  By undermining Ayala's 
effectiveness, even if only by obstructing his ability to 
travel temporarily, the GoV also makes it clear to those who 
would challenge it on human rights grounds that, prominent or 
not, the government is prepared to act against them. 
Brownfield 
 
 
NNNN 
      2005CARACA01012 - CONFIDENTIAL