# Human Rights Watch Activists Expelled

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-rights-watch-activists-expelled/464368>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [September 19, 2008, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-rights-watch-activists-expelled/464368 "2008-09-19T21:10:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![kitemaker\_chuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a88e4f/32.png) [@kitemaker\_chuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitemaker_chuck)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-rights-watch-activists-expelled/464368/1 "2008-09-19T21:10:03Z")

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According to an AP news article that I saw online, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela had two activists from the Human Rights Watch organisation expelled from the country.  
Will these expulsions hurt his government’s image to any great extent?

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**Author:** ![5-HT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/f19dbf/32.png) [@5-HT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5-HT)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 9:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-rights-watch-activists-expelled/464368/2 "2008-09-19T21:18:53Z")

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> [@kitemaker\_chuck](#):
>
> According to an AP news article that I saw online, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela had two activists from the Human Rights Watch organisation expelled from the country.  
> Will these expulsions hurt his government’s image to any great extent?

Of the people I know that are still making excuses for Chavez, I doubt this will even make a dent. I’m sure they’ve already prepared a list of “valid” reasons why he did it.

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**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-rights-watch-activists-expelled/464368/3 "2008-09-19T21:52:31Z")

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They were US spies (or some such)…why should that hurt the image of the great leader?

-XT

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**Author:** ![foolsguinea](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/foolsguinea/32/14751_2.png) [@foolsguinea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/foolsguinea)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2008, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/human-rights-watch-activists-expelled/464368/4 "2008-09-19T22:37:08Z")

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Well, they could have been US spies.

But yeah, this bothers me more than a lot of Chavez’s actions over which the right flips out on a regular basis.