By AFP,
Caracus : 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 during 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.”
It was enacted thanks to the power to rule by decree that the National Assembly — which is dominated by the president’s supporters — granted Chavez last year.
The spy law sparked outrage among opposition members and human rights groups which charged it denied people due process and the right to inform authorities anonymously.
Interior Minister Ramon Rodriguez had said the law, which creates two new military and two new civilian intelligence agencies, will help Venezuela stand up to “things like United States interference in (Venezuela’s) internal affairs.”