State Department study blasts Cuba, Venezuela

The State Department’s annual report on human rights claimed that there has been some progress in Latin America yet has deeply criticized the situation in Cuba and Venezuela.

Regarding Cuba, the report says that the Castro administration denies “its citizens their basic human rights and committed numerous, serious abuses.” Over 200 political prisoners remained detained and the report highlighted a litany of human rights abuses from “harsh and life-threatening prison conditions, including denial of medical care” to “denial of peaceful assembly and association”.

The State Department’s assessment of Venezuela was not as harsh as Cuba but still pretty critical nevertheless. Though U.S. diplomats recently expressed cautious optimism over the recent term limits referendum, the report said that referendums pursued “policies that threatened to undermine freedoms and democratic institutions."

The Venezuelan government replied this morning:

The report's allegations are "false, bad-intentioned and meddling," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement posted on its Web site. It also said the U.S. government has "the darkest record of violations ... of human dignity in modern history."

According to Voice of America, the report praised several Latin American countries such as Argentina for going after suspected Dirty War criminals and Colombia for “improving” a still-deteriorated human rights environment. (Really? “Improving”?)

Image- The telegraph (The State Department’s annual report on human rights critiqued the referendum process in Venezuela)
Online Sources- Voice of America, State Department, AP, El Universal, The Latin Americanist