Chavez revokes controversial spying law

0 Comments | AFP, June, 2008

CARACAS (AFP) — Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez on Saturday revoked a law he decreed last month creating four spy agencies and a Cuban-style national informants' network, saying the measure contained errors.

"I started listening to criticism (of the law) and in the end, I think there are some mistakes there, I have no problem acknowledging it. So I decided this morning to correct that law," Chavez said at a function of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela.

The law, which the government said was needed to block US interference in Venezuelan affairs, made it a crime to refuse to cooperate with intelligence agencies and to publish information deemed "secret or confidential."

That sparked outrage among opposition members and human rights groups which...