"Hired killers, in common agreement with opposition and land-owner factions, have been applying genocide in border areas murdering 62 peasant leaders, all government supporters."

The latest opposition assassination was the case of Pedro Doria, father of another rural leader killed six months earlier.

The opposition has not mentioned any of the killings in its denunciation of human rights violations in Venezuela. Only independent human rights groups such as PROVEA and Red de Apoyo de Justicia y Paz have registered border badland killings.

Rangel calls the opposition's attempt to loge a complaint against President Hugo Chavez Frias at the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague for crimes against humanity as unimportant and lacking foundation ... human rights violations that the opposition is promoting abroad are "forged" and contain a hidden political agenda.

Referring to the Supreme Tribunal of Justice (TSJ) ruling annulling an arrest order against Baruta Mayor Henrique Capriles, Rangel calls it "Mafioso" commenting that there are a lot of mafia-style decisions in Venezuela.

Former US Ambassador to Venezuela, John Maisto is given a roasting for his remarks at the Organization of American States (OAS) against Venezuela ... "lamentable from an intellectual point of view ... his remarks that President Chavez Frias is falling into authoritarianism are crazy and irrelevant."

The Venezuelan Episcopal Conference president, Baltazar Porras' declaration on the human rights situation, Rangel maintains, doesn't reflect the feeling of ordinary Catholics ... "I'm a Catholic and I don't feel represented."