Venezuela's Oldest Human Rights Organization: "Here There is a State That Respects Human Rights"

Venezuela's Oldest Human Rights Organization: "Here There is a State That Respects Human Rights"

By Lucas Koerner and Sister Eugenia Russia, June 25th 2015

As "reports" of alleged "human rights violations" in Venezuela are unscrupulously circulated by transnational corporate media and rightwing governments, VA speaks to long time human rights activist Sister Eugenia Russian, president of Latin American Foundation of Human Rights and Social Development (Fundalatin), concerning a range of issues, including "political prisoners", "torture" allegations, the "crackdown" on journalists, Liberation Theology and more.


Q: Fundalatin has a long and distinguished history as a defender of human rights. Could you talk a little about the origin and role of your organization?


A: Celebrating its 37th anniversary on June 9th, Fundalatin is the first human rights organization in Venezuela, founded in 1968 with the aim of supporting political refugees expelled and displaced by the Southern Cone dictatorships, Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay, who came looking for refuge in Venezuela.


Fundalatin was founded by the Spanish priest Father Juan Vives Suria, who left his post as President of Caritas due to a conflict with the Church hierarchy [Conferencia Episcopal], together with mostly secular Chilean exiles fleeing the Pinochet dictatorship.The goal was first to create a space [for the refugees] where their dignity would be respected and second to educate people in human rights from the perspective of liberation theology.


(Fundalatin) was created really as an ecumenical [organization] with various Christian religious tendencies, including Lutheran, Evangelical, Presbyterian, and Catholic. Fundalatin has always been guided by liberation theology and as such is forever open to everything that creates life and promotes a culture of justice and peace. If you want peace, work for justice. Without justice, there can be no peace. Otherwise, there's the peace of the cemetery, of the tomb, or the peace of silence. Building peace through justice is the continuous work we have after 37 years because after 1999, we stopped attending to specific cases of political refugees and dedicated ourselves exclusively to human rights education in organizations, state institutions, schools, and above all in base communities.


Q: It's no secret that Liberation Theology is a very subversive, revolutionary tradition, being declared a principal enemy of the US government in the 70s and 80s during its terrorist wars in Central America. Can you elaborate on how Fundalatin's commitment to Liberation Theology and the Bolivarian process distinguish it from other human rights NGOs emerging in Venezuela?

More:
http://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/11424