Dear Friends,

Today's article by the New York Times, "Chávez Decree Tightens Hold on Intelligence", demonstrates the Times' ongoing attempt to mislead the general public about the intentions of the Venezuelan government.

While one might have expected the article to describe the content of Venezuela's new intelligence law and discuss a range of reactions to it, the scope was limited only to criticisms by the opposition.

Here are the facts:

The law eliminates Venezuela's 50 year old secret political police, known as DISIP, created during the dictatorship of Perez Jimenez. It also eliminates  Venezuela's agency of Military intelligence (DIM). In their place, the General Intelligence Office and the General Counterintelligence Office have been created, both overseen by the  Interior Ministry and the Ministry of Defense.

Refining the intelligence capacity of the state does not allow for a "tightening control" by President Chavez; rather, for the first time Venezuela is providing a legal framework for carrying out and monitoring intelligence activities of the nation.  Many actions that once were left to the discretion of the DISIP and the DIM are now subject to oversight.  Moreover, the existence of this law provides a level of transparency that was lacking before.

The dissolution of the DISIP and DIM was long overdue.  For  decades. Venezuelans feared these agencies for their involvement in nefarious activity and repression, including incidents involving the escape of notorious criminals. Most importantly, from 1967 to 1974, terrorist Luis Posada Carriles was a high level official at the DISIP. This very important point was passed over by the Times.

As opposed to what the Times implies, the new law guarantees the rights of Freedom of Expression and Due Process under the Law, as established in Venezuela's Constitution. In Article 21, for instance, it is clearly outlined that those prosecuted are guaranteed the right to a public defense.

Venezuela has recently experienced threats to its national security, this is best exemplified by the unsuccessful 2002 coup d'etat that was supported by the Bush administration.  Moreover, just last month, a U.S. fighter jet violated Venezuela's airspace and to date the U.S. has not provided an adequate explanation.  Venezuela is reorganizing its intelligence community not only to guarantee the security of its democratic institutions but also to guarantee that intelligence operations are carried out under the legal framework of the Constitution.

President Chavez passed this law using the Enabling Law, granted to him for 18 months by the National Assembly in January 2007.

Finally, the biased article by the Times, even states that the Chavez's government "has already used voter registration data to purge employees deemed disloyal to the president."  The Times needs to be reminded that Venezuela's elections are among the most heavily scrutinized in the world and to make such accusations today are misleading.  While one incident of this occurred in the past, initiated by the opposition (not the Chavez government), this practice has been condemned and never tolerated by the President.

Take Action

Write a 150-word letter to the editor of the New York Times.  Do not allow the Times to keep spreading misinformation and unbalanced coverage.
Write to: letters@nytimes.com or fax it to:212-556-3622. Don't forget to include your name, address and phone number.

For further questions, please contact the VIO at 202 347 8081.

Received via Email from the Venezuela Information Office (VIO)