Miami, February 8, 2010
Erick Holder
Attorney General
cc.: Brian M. O'Leary
Deputy Chief Immigration Judge
Lauren Kielsmeier
Acting Deputy Director of USCIS
Dear Mr. Holder,
I am the president of an organization named Venezuela Awareness Foundation based in the city of Miami, Florida. One of our main objectives is the monitoring of the Human Rights situation in Venezuela.
Since Hugo Chavez took office in February 1999, Venezuela’s legal institutions began to deteriorate and along came violations of human rights for political reasons, violations that have increased and keep increasing at an alarming rate: torture, political prisoners, political persecutions which has also lead to many people being forced to go into exile.
Many Venezuelans have had to emigrate to protect their lives. Some of them have opted to go to the USA, but have found that the asylum process is very hard. One reason for such hardness is that administrative authorities and immigration judges are not aware of the atrocious situation of human rights in Venezuela.
The above situation encouraged me to send you our last Report about human rights violations due to political reasons, which depicts how political persecution has gotten worse and worse in Venezuela.
With due respect, my question to you is if you would take this Report into account when considering political asylum cases.
Sincerely,
Patricia Andrade
President
Venezuela Awareness Foundation