March 20, 2010, Axis of Logic - Audio evidence from the official transcripts of the Interamerican Court of Human Rights (CIDH) conclusively proves that the seven magistrates of the CIDH conspired to prejudice Venezuela. On March 3rd national and international public opinion was witness to the fraudulent actions of an institution, which forms part of the Organization of American States (OAS), which prejudiced the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela.

Germán Saltrón

Germán Saltrón, Venezuela’s legal representative before the CIDH and the lawyer María Alejandra Díaz, presented the video titled “Secrets of the Human Rights Imperial Court", on the state TV program Dando y Dando. In the interview they analyzed the grave consequences of the violations perpetrated by this OAS institution, which should be supporting human rights and their transparency in the region.

The recording in question concerns the case of the Venezuelan General, Francisco Usón, a retired military officer who denounced Venezuela before the Human Rights Court after being sentenced to five and a half years jail time for his defamatory declarations in a TV program shown on the private channel Televen in April 2004. On the same program were the opposition journalists Marta Colomina and Patricia Poleo. Without producing any proof Usón accused the Venezuelan army of burning several soldiers incarcerated for bad conduct with a flame thrower at Fort Mara in Zulia State. In the same interview he also said that elections would not be enough to defeat the government of President Chávez but that there was “another solution” which would not be peaceful.

In the tape recording the magistrates of the CIDH confess that the defense of the Venezuelan State is solid and well documented. They reveal that they intend to pull strings so that the final verdict does not show the evident bias of the OAS Human Rights Commission which upheld a false accusation against Venezuela and they all agree to manipulate the arguments to be published in the final resolution.

Disgracefully they admit on the tape that both the CIDH and the Human Rights Commission have their “fingers pointed at Venezuela” and for this reason they have to be very careful so as not to get into a twist in this case. The verdict was already planned on the same day by the judges after the first hearing which took place in late 2004.

The court itself handed over the incriminating tape of the magistrates to the team defending Venezuela

Saltrón stated, “They flagrantly violated their own rules and without waiting to hear the arguments from both parties, started planning the verdict.” He also explained that the audio tape where the deliberations of the magistrates can be clearly heard was handed over to the defense team of the Venezuelan state in error by the Court.

Saltrón explained that for administrative reasons the Court hands over recordings of the hearings to both parties, “but they gave us the recordings of the judges’ deliberations which took place after the first hearing ended,” he added. He confirmed that the defense team almost jumped in surprise when they heard the whole tape which is about 35 minutes long. The voices of the President of the Court, Cecilia Medina Quiroga (Chile) and the Judge Sergio Ramírez García (Mexico) can be clearly heard.

Saltrón recalled that after the first and only hearing in this case which took place in Santo Domingo in 2004, the magistrates informed the parties that they required more information from both sides and in order to give a verdict would need up to four months.

But the tape demonstrates that the magistrates did not wait for the lapse of time they themselves had ruled upon and to make things even worse, the tape proves that they conspired right after the hearing to issue a verdict against Venezuela. They did not wait for the evidence they had requested and simply ignored the two months granted to the parties to complete their presentations.

Saltrón declared:

“They started forming the verdict without waiting for either party to present their conclusions two months later….If we listen to the complete recording which lasts 35 minutes, everything they say and establish in the conversation is exactly what they put in the verdict. There is no difference.”

He compared what was said in the deliberations by the judges with the ruling in the verdict published on November 30th 2009 which inexplicably favored General Usón.

Saltrón concluded, “This is a total violation of the right to defense by the magistrates of the Human Rights Court, which in itself has a solemn duty to perform.”

Court changed the basis of the charges to avoid awarding the verdict to Venezuela

Venezuelan attorney María Alejandra Díaz

María Alejandra Díaz said that the tape reveals that the magistrates, recognizing that they would not make any pronouncement on the basis of the case (which was nothing more than defamation and a public call for a coup d’état and destabilization against a legitimately and constitutionally elected government), announced that they would not deal with the serious crimes committed by Usón and just dedicate a “few paragraphs” which would exonerate him, using the supposed violation of his right to free speech.

“But the very Interamerican Convention establishes exceptions to freedom of speech,” Díaz remarked, such as calling for a rebellion, destabilization and encouraging crime. For this reason the verdict completely violated Article 13, subsection 2 of the Interamerican Convention on Human Rights.
Díaz also pointed out that on the first page of the verdict is a footnote which states that the President of the Court, Cecilia Medina Quiroga (Chile) and the Judge Sergio Ramírez García (Mexico) were not present during the deliberations on the verdict. In fact, it is these two magistrates who dominate the conspiracy against Venezuela in the official court recording. Amazing how esteemed judges can lie through their teeth and in writing.

“These people avoided ruling on the basis on the material presented since they knew that they would have to issue a verdict favoring the Venezuelan state,” Díaz stated.

Díaz also added that the Court also falsely ruled that the military tribunal which condemned Usón in Venezuela was not competent, since they considered the General to be a civilian, when in reality as a retired military officer he still continued to be subject to military law in Venezuela.
Both lawyers noted that in 2004 the recall referendum against president Chávez would take place and the opposition knew it would lose based on the polls published at that time.

They also recalled that in May of the same year the presence of more tan 100 Colombian paramilitaries was discovered in El Hatillo on the outskirts of Caracas. This terrorist contingent was there to destabilize the national government. They concluded that these two cases, the paramilitaries and the accusation before the CIDH, were aimed at avoiding the referendum taking place, which Chávez won hands down in August of that year.
Díaz was emphatic in summarizing the recording which is an official document of the CIDH itself. “The defense of Human Rights does not imply impunity and unfortunately what this Imperial Court is proving is that accusations are being made in concert against Venezuela.” 

Díaz concluded, “The Interamerican Commission on Human Rights is tied to the Court and here is the undeniable proof.”

The videos presented on the Dando and Dando program are in Spanish and probably unintelligible for the majority of Axis readers. However, since this “incident” is so damning for the OAS, the Interamerican Court of Human Rights and the Human Rights Commission, the Editorial Board has decided to publish the videos concerned. The audio recording is an official court document which condemns these magistrates out of their own mouths.
This is a good example of how the enemies of the Bolivarian Revolution use what is now termed “smart power” to achieve their objectives of discrediting regimes which do not fall into line behind the imperialist edicts of the “free world”.

Based on reports published in Aporrea and broadcast on Venezuelan Television (VTV)

See the video, "The Secrets of the Imperial Court" (in Spanish)