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CARACAS-Venezuela brusquely expelled two activists from U.S.-based Human Rights Watch on Friday who had accused President Hugo Chavez of political intolerance and eroding democracy during nearly 10 years in power.State television played a video of officials reading an expulsion order to activists Jose Miguel Vivanco and Daniel Wilkinson, who were filmed packing their bags and being escorted on to a plane that took off just after midnight.The move highlighted the leftist leader's intolerance of international criticism and may further strain ties with the United States, Venezuela's main oil customer, a week after Chavez also ejected the U.S. ambassador.U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called Venezuela an autocracy on Thursday.Human Rights Watch is an independent group, but Chavez says it collaborates with the Bush administration in a campaign to unseat him and ignores his government's advances in reducing poverty."These groups, dressed up as human rights defenders, are financed by the United States," said Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro. "They are aligned with a policy of attacking countries that are building new economic models."Human Rights Watch is also fiercely critical of the rights record of Venezuela's neighbor Colombia, whose right-wing government is a close Washington ally.Politically motivated murder is common in Colombia.To read more go to:
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