Human rights in Venezuela worsened last year after new government laws undermined media and judicial independence, the United States said on Monday in a report dismissed as "more lies" by Caracas. The State Department 2004 world human rights report singled out the Venezuelan media legislation and a Supreme Court law which critics says allows the government to pack the nation's top tribunal with political allies. "We saw unfortunately some real backsliding there," Michael Kozak, acting U.S. assistant secretary of state for democracy, human rights and labor, said in a Washington press conference. The report comes after U.S. officials recently stepped up attacks on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who they criticize as authoritarian and a threat to regional stability because of his ties to Cuba's President Fidel Castro (news - web sites). Venezuela's government, a fierce opponent of what it calls U.S. "imperialist" policies, dismissed the comments. "This State Department report is more of the same: more lies, more fabrications and more hypocrisy," Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel said. Relations between the United States and Venezuela have become increasingly antagonistic since Chavez was first elected in 1998 promising to fight corruption and poverty in the world's No. 5 oil exporter. The former army officer presents his "Bolivarian revolution" for the poor as an alternative to U.S. capitalism and accuses the United States of trying to oust him, including through a short-lived 2002 coup which he survived. Venezuela at the same time reiterates its key petroleum supplies to Washington are safe.
The U.S. government dismisses Chavez's charges, but it admits to financing local pro-democracy groups which helped organize a recall referendum in August. Chavez won the vote. Venezuela's National Assembly in November approved the media law the government said would improve broadcasting and protect minors from scenes of sex and violence. Critics fear the law, which forbids the broadcasting of scenes or statements that incite disorder or threaten national security, will be used to crackdown on political opposition. The National Assembly also passed a law expanding the Supreme Court and allowing the parliament, which is controlled by pro-Chavez supporters, to more easily appoint judges. The government said the reforms aimed to end years of corruption.