Chavez fails PR 101

At a press conference in Caracas on Thursday morning, Human Rights Watch released a report critical of Venezuela. It got solid press. Then on Thursday night Venezuelan authorities went to the hotel of the two HRW guys, detained them, took them to the airport and put them on a plane out of the country (they arrived in Sao Paulo Friday morning).

And so what would have been a 1-day story is now a 2-day story, with a government first denying that it is at all repressive and then kicking out its critics.

Bad move. That has to be about the stupidest thing ever. This stuff is PR 101.

I have mixed feelings about Chavez. But kicking these guys out and claiming they are tools of the US Govt is a move that just stinks of recklessness. What they did Thursday night could only lead to bad PR for themselves, and yet they did it. Yes, I'll say it, it's like they were asking for trouble. And it's surprising to me, because the Chavez administration had been trying to work the press somewhat in recent years, setting up an office in Washington and trying to influence the debate a bit in the United States and elsewhere.

There was actually one sort-of legitimate reason Venezuela had for kicking them out -- that, reportedly, HRW had entered on tourist visas, which is not what they were doing. Who knows what the back story is -- presumably HRW was denied entry through official channels, or would have been, and had no choice but to enter as 'tourists'. But Venezuela could have focused on this issue only, saying "we are kicking them out not because of what they said but because they entered the country on false terms, therefore breaking our law. Any other country would similarly enforce such laws."

Instead, they helped build the report's case that the Venezuelan government is, in some cases, punishing dissent. Which is ironic, because the Venezuelan government punishes dissent relatively minimally on the scale of things.

Update: The Venezuela Information Office responds to the report.