Mohamad Merhi; the Venezuelan Human Rights defender
By Aleksander Boyd
Director of Proveo
By any standards and taking into consideration the precarious situation experienced
by the victims of human rights violations in Venezuela, today was a successful
day. We started at the Latin American and Caribbean department of the Foreign
and Commonwealth Office; we then went to the headquarters of Amnesty International.
Words were changed for actions and a demonstration followed in front of the
Houses of Parliament in Westminster, concluding the day with the presentation
of a documentary about Chavez at the LSE.
The story of Mr Merhi is nothing short of outstanding and perhaps that was
the reason why we received such a prompt and welcoming response from all the
aforesaid institutions. For those of you whom are not familiarised with the
struggle of Mr Merhi, I would say that he was marching with his son among a
million strong demonstration towards Miraflores on April 11th 2002 (11A) when
his son was shot in the head and died. At this stage one must not elaborate
on the intellectual perpetrators of those crimes. However there is an issue
that cannot be denied by any institution of this planet, i.e. the lack of a
prompt and expeditious investigation, which will bring justice to light.
Lots of pro and con arguments can be presented against the current administration
and its involvement in those events. Take Amnesty for example, they put forward
the argument that the government has indeed advanced the investigations to a
certain extent if compared to the events of "El Caracazo" in 1989
or the two coup attempts led by Chavez in 1992. They think that some progress
has been made; alas Mr Merhi has seen none of that. What he has actually seen
is that the government has used every single mechanism available to them to
block, cover up and delay the normal course of justice, which in the Venezuelan
case are quite a few considering that the president controls the Public Prosecutor's
Office, the Supreme Court, the National Assembly, the investigative police force
(PTJ) and the Ombudsman's Office. That can neither be denied for more than a
year has passed and no one has been held accountable for said crimes, what is
even worse is that one of the shooters of 11A in spite of being caught in camera
-even by the Irish filmmakers- was presented to the triumphant Bolivarian crowd
a year after as a "hero of the revolution" Chavez' dictum.
Confronted with such a pathetic response to investigate the killings, Mr Merhi
took a more proactive stance in his claim for justice. He presented a lawsuit
in the Supreme Court and started giving conferences and statements to the media
on a constant basis. Due to these actions, unknown individuals attempted to
kill him twice on the same day, actions that came to swell the list of violations
that he has been trying to denounce. The OAS granted precautionary measures
to Mr Merhi, in an attempt to ensure his well being. The police implemented
said measures for two weeks, although the document clearly stated that they
should have been enforced for a period of six months. He declared himself in
hungerstrike shortly after, only to be the subject of more violent attacks not
only by government supporters a.k.a. Bolivarian Circles but also by the National
Guard.
The account of abuses goes on almost endlessly and yet Mr Merhi does not advocate
for violence or confrontation. Losing a son is an unbearable tragedy for most
people. It is therefore of extreme importance that no more sons will be lost,
that is the core of Mr Merhi's speech. No more bloodshed, no more killings,
no more hatred language but justice and only justice for all. Listening to him
is quasi surreal.
On the other hand we still encounter people who would argue in favour of Chavez.
The question is; who can contest Mr Merhi's position? Certainly the opposition
and the media are riddled with problems and incompetence but that does not change
the fact that people were and are killed in Venezuela. One of the main responsibilities
of any government is to protect the citizens. Can we assume that politics are
more important than the loss of human life? Someone was criticizing the role
of the media in Venezuela today at the LSE, to which I replied; "how would
the citizens and the sensationalist British media react if Mr Blair were to
address the nation from Downing Street assuring that the situation is completely
normal when a couple of miles away -say in Trafalgar Square- people are being
shot at and killed? Would they be classified as biased for broadcasting the
situation? Such a tragic event has to be made known to the general public regardless
of who commenced the shootings and one must expect that our leftist European
friends will agree. The president's attempt to block the signal of the Venezuelan
TV networks that day constitutes another human rights violation, the one which
deals with the right to be informed.
With no intentions of being an expert in human rights and after a quick revision
to the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, set forth by the UN and subscribed by
Venezuela, eighteen articles out of thirty have been violated by Chavez' adminitration,
namely art. 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 12, 17.2, 18, 19, 20, 21, 23.4, 25.1, 26.2,
27.2 and 30.
The evidence will surface sooner or later. By joining efforts with Mr Merhi
and his cause, Proveo will take his message to new audiences all across this
earth. Surely justice shall come and a huge step in that direction was made
today. Success is ephemeral though, therefore several European institutions
will hear our message this week.
© by Vcrisis.com & the author
|