President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has expelled two key Human Rights Watch activists from his country for a report that criticized Venezuela’s human rights record.

According to the BBC News, “the foreign ministry said Jose Miguel Vivanco, HRW’s America’s director, and his deputy Daniel Wilkinson had committed ‘serious violations.’”

The two men issued a report earlier on Thursday that accused Mr. Chavez of weakening democracy in Venezuela. The move is followed by a series of tit-tof-tat expulsions with the US.

Last week, President Chavez expelled the US ambassador in support of Bolivia’s President Evo Morales, who threw out the US envoy in La Pas after accusing Washington of attempting to oust him.

Washington responded to those actions by expelling both the Bolivian and Venezuelan ambassadors.

As reported by the BBC, “in a televised statement, the foreign ministry said Mr. Vivanco had ‘violated the constitution and the laws’ of Venezuela and ‘illegally interfered in the country’s internal affairs.”

Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro announced that Mr. Vivanco, a Chilean, had departed from the country, but it was not immediately clear if Mr. Wilkinson had left too.

To read the entire article from the BBC News, link here:

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