Nobody Likes a Critic

From Jislaine Medina: In less than twenty-four hours, two senior monitors from the Human Rights Watch in Venezuela were expelled from the country after accusing President Hugo Chavez of "discrimination on political grounds." The charge was that the monitors engaged in political acts on a tourist visa, according to the Venezuelan government. Later, Jose Miguel Vivanco, one of the expelled monitors, was quoted in saying the following: "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." On one hand, it was not unheard of in the past for governments to silence or cast out dissenting opinions. Freedom of speech and press are not necessarily guaranteed rights in other areas of the world. On the other hand, Hugo Chavez is coming across as somewhat thin-skinned compared to some of the things said about current US President George W. Bush.