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Democracy in Venezuela DEMOCRACY IN VENEZUELA HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE OF THE COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED NINTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION NOVEMBER 17, 2005 Serial No. 109–140 Printed for the use of the Committee on International Relations ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.house.gov/international—relations U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 24–600PDF WASHINGTON : 2006 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate Mar 21 2002 11:27 Jul 14, 2006 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 F:\WORK\WH\111705\24600.000 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois, Chairman JAMES A. LEACH, Iowa TOM LANTOS, California CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, HOWARD L. BERMAN, California Vice Chairman GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York DAN BURTON, Indiana ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American ELTON GALLEGLY, California Samoa ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey DANA ROHRABACHER, California ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey EDWARD R. ROYCE, California SHERROD BROWN, Ohio PETER T. KING, New York BRAD SHERMAN, California STEVE CHABOT, Ohio ROBERT WEXLER, Florida THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York RON PAUL, Texas WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts DARRELL ISSA, California GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York JEFF FLAKE, Arizona BARBARA LEE, California JO ANN DAVIS, Virginia JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York MARK GREEN, Wisconsin EARL BLUMENAUER, Oregon JERRY WELLER, Illinois SHELLEY BERKLEY, Nevada MIKE PENCE, Indiana GRACE F. NAPOLITANO, California THADDEUS G. MCCOTTER, Michigan ADAM B. SCHIFF, California KATHERINE HARRIS, Florida DIANE E. WATSON, California JOE WILSON, South Carolina ADAM SMITH, Washington JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas BETTY MCCOLLUM, Minnesota J. GRESHAM BARRETT, South Carolina BEN CHANDLER, Kentucky CONNIE MACK, Florida DENNIS A. CARDOZA, California JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska MICHAEL MCCAUL, Texas TED POE, Texas THOMAS E. MOONEY, SR., Staff Director/General Counsel ROBERT R. KING, Democratic Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE DAN BURTON, Indiana, Chairman RON PAUL, Texas ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey JERRY WELLER, Illinois, Vice Chairman GRACE NAPOLITANO, California KATHERINE HARRIS, Florida GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York JAMES A. LEACH, Iowa ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey Samoa ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey CONNIE MACK, Florida WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts MICHAEL MCCAUL, Texas BARBARA LEE, California MARK WALKER, Subcommittee Staff Director JESSICA LEWIS, Democratic Professional Staff Member DAN S. GETZ, Professional Staff Member BRIAN WANKO, Staff Associate (II) VerDate Mar 21 2002 11:27 Jul 14, 2006 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\WH\111705\24600.000 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL C O N T E N T S Page WITNESSES The Honorable Thomas A. Shannon, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, U.S. Department of State ................................................. 18 Ms. Ana Julia Jatar, Executive Committee, Su´ mate ............................................ 43 Mr. Joseph McSpedon, Senior Program Manager, Freedom House .................... 47 Mr. John Walsh, Senior Associate, Washington Office on Latin America .......... 53 LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING The Honorable Dan Burton, a Representative in Congress from the State of Indiana, and Chairman, Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere: Prepared statement .............................................................................................. 4 The Honorable Thomas A. Shannon: Prepared statement ................................... 24 Ms. Ana Julia Jatar: Prepared statement ............................................................. 45 Mr. Joseph McSpedon: Prepared statement .......................................................... 50 Mr. John Walsh: Prepared statement .................................................................... 54 APPENDIX Material Submitted for the Hearing Record .......................................................... 67 (III) VerDate Mar 21 2002 11:27 Jul 14, 2006 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\WH\111705\24600.000 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL VerDate Mar 21 2002 11:27 Jul 14, 2006 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\WH\111705\24600.000 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL DEMOCRACY IN VENEZUELA THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 2005 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE, COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, Washington, DC. The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:36 a.m. in room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office Building, the Honorable Dan Burton (Chairman of the Subcommittee) presiding. Mr. BURTON. Good morning. A quorum being present, the Sub- committee on the Western Hemisphere will come to order. I ask unanimous consent that all Members and witnesses’ written and opening statements be included in the record and without objec- tion, so ordered. I ask unanimous consent that all articles, exhibits and extra- neous or tabular material referred to by Members or witnesses be included in the record and without objection, so ordered. I ask unanimous consent that any Member that may attend to- day’s hearing be considered a Member of the Subcommittee for the purposes of receiving testimony and questioning witnesses after Subcommittee Members have been given the opportunity to do so and without objection, so ordered. Today we are convening a hearing on Democracy in Venezuela to take stock of the state of political and economic freedoms in that country. Your testimony today, Mr. Secretary, will help the Subcommittee in making an assessment of political developments in that country so that we can make an objective or take an objective inventory of real and perceived threats to democratic institutions and freedoms and the implications for stability in the region. It will also help us achieve a better understanding of the oppor- tunities to strengthen U.S. engagement in the region that is geared to promoting democratic and equitable growth and stability. I first want to welcome the Honorable Thomas A. Shannon, the newly sworn-in Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. I want to thank you for joining us today. We look forward to working with you, Tom and we share the con- fidence that Secretary Rice and President Bush has in you. You have got a tough job, but we want to be as much help to you as we possibly can and we look forward to hearing what you have to say. I am convinced by the growing body of evidence that the Govern- ment of Venezuela is dismantling the institutions of democracy. I also believe the greatest threat to democracy in Venezuela is (1) VerDate Mar 21 2002 11:27 Jul 14, 2006 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\WH\111705\24600.000 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL 2 authoritarianism. The greatest threat to democracy in Venezuela is not American hedge money or free markets. It is fragile or cor- rupted institutions and the lack of respect for constitutional mecha- nisms and the rule of law. In the 1970s, Venezuela enjoyed a tradition of civilian democratic rule and earned a reputation as one of the more stable democracies in Latin America, with a burgeoning middle class. The United States has traditionally had close relations with Ven- ezuela, but there has been deepening friction in the relationship with President Chavez, accompanied by an erosion of democratic institutions. The Government of Venezuela is becoming more authoritarian, replacing the country’s multi-party democracy with a political sys- tem that revolves around the state with its President controlling all the levers of power. Some of this is called statification of Venezuelan society. Others point to the increasing influence of the armed forces and President Chavez’s open admiration of people like Che Guevara and coopera- tion with Fidel Castro in Cuba as a matter of deep concern. Given Mr. Castro’s record in Cuba and trying to start revolutions throughout Central and Latin America, I can certainly appreciate this concern. In President Chavez’s speech at the Summit of the Americas meeting this month and I watched all of it personally, I wanted to hear what he had to say, because I have had the opportunity to meet with President Chavez twice and he is a very engaging fellow. He has a Clintonesque, if you will, personality. He is very engag- ing. He is a very warm guy. He talks a good game. I did not mean that in a detrimental way, I am just using that as a comparison. I always thought of Mr. Clinton as one of the finest politicians, I did not agree with him on a lot of other things, one of the finest politicians we have ever had. But in any event, when I met with Mr. Chavez he was very en- gaging and he said he wanted to work with the United States and he wanted to have a rapport with us. When we talked about having his foreign minister meet with our State Department, he was open to that, even though he had not been engaging Mr. Brownfield, our Ambassador down there, in meetings and so we were hopeful. Then in New York, once again, we had some kind of positive statements from him. So I left with some encouraging feelings that maybe there were some things that we could work out with Mr. Chavez by having a dialogue with him. But when I heard that speech at the Summit of the Americas,
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