Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Saturday revoked a law he decreed last month creating four spy agencies and a Cuban-style national informants’ network, saying that the measure “contained errors”.“I began listening to criticism (of the law) and in the end, I think there are some mistakes there, I have no problem acknowledging it. So I decided this morning to correct that law,” said Chavez at a function of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela.
The law, which the government said was needed to block US interference in Venezuelan affairs, made it a crime to refuse to cooperate with intelligence agencies and to publish information deemed “secret or confidential.”
That sparked outrage among opposition members and human rights groups that charged that the law denied people due process and the right to inform authorities anonymously. For many rights groups, “That amounts to what is known as a police state,” said Marino Alvarado of the Venezuelan Programme for Education and Action on Human Rights (Provea).