Politics
A delegation of 14 students headed by Julio Rivas charged on Monday the Venezuelan government with human rights abuses.

The delegation headed for Washington to hold a meeting last Friday with Santiago Cantón, Executive Secretary, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), Organization of American States (OAS), and OAS Secretary-General José Miguel Insulza, Efe reported.

But the students extended their stay and appeared on Monday at the hearings held by the Commission on the Venezuelan case.

In the first day of the 137th session of public meetings at the IAHCR, the agency heard in two private hearings the claims from several organizations of alleged violation of the right to freedom of expression and information in Venezuela, reports on democratic institutions, vigilantes and prisons.

In a hearing requested by the Venezuelan government, the Venezuelan delegate for human rights Germán Saltrón said that in the face of a discredited Venezuelan opposition, US advisors recommended in 2007 using a sector of students from private universities to protest in the streets against the government.