Wall Street Journal
August 15, 2013
By Kejal Vyas and Ezequiel Minaya
Courtesy of: Reuters
CARACAS—Venezuela’s leftist government, which often touts its social inclusion and antidiscrimination policies, is under fire from rights groups after a tirade of antigay slurs in the National Assembly, prompting President Nicolas Maduro to take to the airwaves waving a conciliatory gay-pride flag—before continuing to attack his political opponents.
Lawmakers from Mr. Maduro’s United Socialist Party of Venezuela released photos that appeared to be from a private gathering in which a top aide to the opposition’s former presidential candidate is seen hugging other men and, in others, mugging for the camera while wearing a shawl and a feathered head piece.
Though the pictures showed nothing lurid, the lawmakers charged that they were “unquestionable” proof of the opposition’s “moral degradation” and evidence of their involvement with “prostitutes” and orgies.
Socialist party congressman Pedro Carreño said “we in the revolution accept sexual diversity,” before using antigay slurs and vulgarities to describe the opposition leader Henrique Capriles and his Primero Justicia party.
The following day, Mr. Carreño apologized, adding, “but I had to put them in their place.”
Ramón José Medina, a director of the opposition coalition, dismissed the allegations as trumped-up efforts by government officials to divert attention from the mountain of economic and social problems plaguing Venezuela, including high crime and an inflation rate topping 40%.
“All of this is clearly an attempt to attack those close to Capriles,” he said.
He said some of the photos as well as receipts to a party-services company cited by Socialist party lawmakers to support allegations of corruption came from property seized during the search of the aide’s residence a week ago.
He said they do not prove any wrongdoing and added that officials were violating the law by publicly showcasing private property. “We’re still trying to figure out what offense they say was committed here,” Mr. Medina said.
Activist groups said the slurs followed a pattern of increasing demonization of homosexuals in the political arena during the past year amid a pair of hard-fought presidential elections. Last October, Mr. Capriles came close to beating former President Hugo Chávez, who died of cancer in March.
Politicians in Venezuela use gay and transgender slurs to “destroy” political adversaries, said Yonatan Matheus, director of the gay advocacy group Venezuela Diversa.
Venezuela has one of the least friendly legal environments toward the gay community in the Spanish-speaking Americas, experts said. Homosexual acts are legal but civil-unions aren’t recognized, in contrast to an increasing number of other countries in the region, said Javier Corrales, a political-science professor at Amherst College, who has written on homosexual and transgender issues in Latin America.
Allies of Venezuela like Argentina and Uruguay have both moved forward with legalizing gay marriage. Meanwhile in Ecuador, courts fined a former presidential candidate earlier this year and stripped him of his political rights for one year after he made homophobic comments.
Mr. Chávez, who often celebrated diversity and inclusion policies toward women, blacks and indigenous peoples, steered clear of the issue.
“What happened in the National Assembly will go down in history as one of the most aggressively homophobic acts in contemporary Latin America,” Mr. Corrales said. “The government is hoping that the public becomes more scandalized by issues of ‘indecency’ than by issues of actual money-related corruption.”
On Wednesday, Mr. Maduro appeared on television holding a rainbow-colored flag and said that he was in solidarity with people of different sexual orientation but backed his ally, Mr. Carreño, calling him an “honorable man.”
He then went on the offensive again, accusing Mr. Capriles of holding orgies in his office. What was shown in the National Assembly, “is only 1% of all that has been uncovered. The orgy videos and photos aren’t publishable…it would be denigrating to the human condition,” the president said.
Mr. Maduro, facing growing criticism of alleged government corruption in his regime, has promised to tackle widespread graft but his withering rhetoric so far has focused almost exclusively on his political foes.
During the presidential campaign in April, Mr. Maduro used gay slurs against Mr. Capriles and other political rivals. Mr. Maduro later offered a tacit apology on state television.
“This is what I would call the pattern of a state that’s schizophrenic,” said Tamara Adrián, a Venezuelan lawyer, professor and local gay and transsexual rights advocate.
Ms. Adrián said Venezuela has signed international accords for protection of sexual diversity, “but it’s not what we see every day,” citing frequent cases of harassment and violent crimes against lesbians and gays.
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