Politics
"The Nobel Peace Prize for Barack Obama, the president of the United States, is a mockery of human rights," said on Friday Gabriela Ramírez, the Venezuelan Ombudswoman.

"It is confusing and difficult to understand the fact that (Barack) Obama, who is the leader of a government that has legitimized torture to obtain information and presides over a country that has no human rights institutions, has been awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize (...) This award is a mockery of human rights," she said.

Ramírez told TV show Despertó Venezuela (Venezuela awoke), broadcast by state-run TV network Venezolana de Televisión, that the US president should apologize to the countries where it has perpetrated genocides, before being awarded a Nobel Prize, state-owned news agency ABN reported.

Ramírez recalled that Obama's administration has reactivated the Fourth Fleet in the Caribbean Sea and is deploying seven military bases in Colombia, near the border with Venezuela, that affect the sovereignty and peace in South America.

The ombudswoman said: "The Nobel Peace Prize is symbolically awarded to someone who works for peace. The top representative of a military power can not be awarded this Prize."

Early on Friday, the Norwegian Nobel Committee said Obama was awarded the Peace Prize for his extraordinary efforts to promote nuclear disarmament and his new willingness to attack growing environmental problems.