<a href=www.vheadline.com>venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, October 08, 2002 By: VHeadline.com Reporters

Teenage mothers to get a chance in life.

• The Caracas Lottery has donated 150 million bolivares to the Caracas Children’s Foundation for help kickstart a program for teenage mothers.

Foundation president and Metropolitan Mayor Alfredo Pena’s wife, Martha Penny says the money will be used to buy a building where the center can function.

"We will begin by catering to 30 girls … it’s a training and educational program, which allows the girls to bring in their children while they are studying."

• According to the Venezuelan Association of Alternative Sexual Education, 1 in 5 women give birth before they reach the age of 20.

Lottery representative Oscar Garcia says it’s a worthy cause since the project "gives teenage mothers a chance to get into the job market and on to higher studies."

Police murder squads top the bill in next HR group visit to the OAS.

The growth of extrajudicial police murder squads will be on the agenda of Venezuelan human rights groups when they visit the Inter American Human Rights Court on October 15. 

Cofavic, Caracas HR Vicariate and Ciudad Guayana Humanas Dignitas will present 100 murders attributed to police goon squads this year as evidence. 

• The Ombudsman’s Office claims 392 cases since 2000.

Cofavic executive director Liliana Ortega says police murder squads have been detected and corroborated in Portuguesa, Falcon, Yaracuy, Anzoategui and Bolivar States.

<a href=www.voanews.com>VOA News 29 Apr 2003, 01:42 UTC

More than 1,000 relatives of jailed Venezuelans have shut themselves in three prisons to demand better living conditions and quicker judicial proceedings for their loved ones.

Authorities say the family members arrived at the Coro, Rodeo and Tocuyito prisons west of Caracas during normal visiting hours Sunday but decided to stage the protest to draw attention to their complaints.

It was not clear if the protests at the three prisons were planned or coordinated.

They come several days after 11 people died and 40 others were injured in rioting between rival gangs at the maximum security Yare prison in north-central Venezuela. Prison officials called in the National Guard to restore order.

Riots are common in Venezuela's overcrowded and understaffed prisons, where almost half the inmates are in pre-trial detention.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Sunday, April 27, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Venezuelan human rights groups PROVEA accuses the Venezuelan government of failing the Yanomami indians,  after assuming a formal commitment before the Inter American Human Rights Commission (IAHRC) to redress a massacre in 1993, when 12 Yanomamis were murdered by Brazilian wildcat miners in the border area of Haximu.

The case came to the attention of IAHRC in December 1996 and in 1999, the court reached a friendly agreement with the Venezuelan State to settle the matter of compensation with the Venezuelan government.

PROVEA's Marino Alvarado criticizes the government because it has boasted about its improving the lot of indigenous peoples but when it comes to the crunch, it leaves them suffering high levels of misery.

"Even though the crimes were committed by Brazilian miners, the Venezuelan State must assume some kind of responsibility."

Venezuela as a State has come under increasing criticism for its failure to comply with state obligations and IAHR Court rulings, especially in compensating victims of massacres by security forces during the last two decades ... El Amparo in 1988, Caracazo in 1989, just to mention two highly-profiled cases.

Forbes.com-Reuters, 04.23.03, 8:07 PM ET By Pablo Bachelet

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States and its allies Wednesday failed to pass a resolution condemning rights abuse in Cuba in the Organization of American States but vowed to come back with a revised text soon.

Reflecting deep divisions over President Fidel Castro's Cuba within the Americas, many OAS members voiced skepticism over the resolution, including Brazil, Venezuela and Mexico.

The proposed text, presented before the OAS' Permanent Council by Nicaragua and co-sponsored by the U.S. and Costa Rica, called on Havana to "immediately free all unjustly arrested Cubans."

More than 75 dissidents have been sentenced to long prison terms in a crackdown started in March, and three men were executed for hijacking a ferry in a failed attempt to flee to the United States.

The resolution, which was also backed by Canada and Chile, will be presented again, after a round of further talks. Permanent Council resolutions must obtain consensus to pass.

Carmen Marina Gutierrez, the Nicaraguan ambassador, said countries needed more time to consider the text. "I am requesting that the project be remitted to the General Commission next week so that delegations continue the consulting process, since I consider they need more time."

The General Commission is part of the Permanent Council, and the U.S. and its allies will try and hash out a consensual text there, before returning it to the Permanent Council.

The U.S. ambassador, Roger Noriega, said it was "essential" to move quickly on the resolution.

While most OAS ambassadors condemned the recent abuses in Cuba, objections hinged on the procedural issue of whether Cuba could be condemned by a body from which it was ejected in 1962. Venezuelan ambassador Jorge Valero said he proposed to initiate a debate on Cuba "free of prejudice."

But some went further, questioning Washington's human rights policies and its continuing embargo against Cuba.

Valter Pecly Moreira, the Brazilian ambassador, said flatly that "Brazil cannot support this project" and spoke out against what he called a "selective" policy on human rights, in a reference to the U.S. effort to pass resolutions condemning Cuba in multilateral organizations such as the OAS and the U.N., while other rights abusers are ignored.

But Canada said "procedural issues" should not block a resolution. "Human rights, in our mind, stand alone and they are a higher priority than procedural issues," said Paul Durand, the Canadian ambassador.

New Vision (Kampala) April 19, 2003 Posted to the web April 21, 2003 John Kakande Kampala

UGANDA has broken ranks with the African Group at the UN Commission on Human Rights (UNHCR) by declining to vote against a motion to censure Sudan and Zimbabwe for human rights abuses.

Uganda on Wednesday also declined to support or oppose resolutions by UNHCR condemning alleged human rights abuses in the North Korea and Turkmenistan. The European Union sponsored the motion.

Recently, Uganda, Rwanda, Ethiopia and Eritrea broke ranks with other African and non-aligned countries when they supported the Iraq war.

The UNHCR on Wednesday adopted resolutions condemning rights violations in North Korea (DPRK), Turkmenistan and Myanmar, but rejected bids to censure the abuses in Zimbabwe and the Sudan.

Uganda, Thailand and Venezuela were the only three countries that opted to abstain on the motion to censure Sudan for human rights violations, according to a statement issued by the UN.

In all, 26 countries opposed the Sudan motion. They include Algeria, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Kenya, Libya, Senegal, South Africa and Zimbabwe.