On Thursday night, Venezuela's Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced in a statement the immediate expulsion of José Miguel Vivanco, America's director for US-based human rights monitor, Human Rights Watch, and of HRW's Deputy Director Daniel Wilkinson.

Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro told state-run TV channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV) that a "special commission" drove Vivanco and Wilkinson to Maiquetía International Airport, where they boarded the first commercial flight available and left the country immediately.

According to the state-run news agency Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias (ABN), the authorities took the decision because the representative of the non-governmental organization "had violated the Constitution and laws of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, attacking the institutions of Venezuela's democracy and illegally interfering in the internal affairs of our country."

Earlier on Thursday, Vivanco had disclosed a report prepared by Human Rights Watch called "A Decade Under Chávez: Political Intolerance and Lost Opportunities for Advancing Human Rights in Venezuela."

Based on the report, Hugo Chávez's government has not only distinguished by its craving to control all the institutions but also by its discrimination and exclusion. The report recalled that discrimination for political reasons is not new in Venezuela and that in 1998 Chávez promised to end it. However, Chávez "replaced (the established system of political discrimination) with new forms of discrimination against real and perceived political opponents."

Translated by Gerardo Cárdenas