NEW YORK, CMC – Even as Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez was laid to rest on Friday a major human rights group in the United States claims that his presidency (1999-2013) was characterized by a “dramatic concentration of power and open disregard for basic human rights guarantees."
According to Human Rights Watch after enacting a new constitution with ample human rights protections in 1999  and surviving a short-lived coup d’état in 2002 ,Chávez and his followers moved to concentrate power, when  “they seized control of the Supreme Court and undercut the ability of journalists, human rights defenders, and other Venezuelans to exercise fundamental rights.
“By his second full term in office, the concentration of power and erosion of human rights protections had given the government free rein to intimidate, censor, and prosecute Venezuelans who criticized the president or thwarted his political agenda,” the organisation said in a statement.