Vzla: Well, duh!

Venezuelan soldiers and police killed nine people and tortured others during a week of protests by opposition groups demanding a recall vote against President Hugo Chavez, a human rights group said.

Jose Miguel Vivanco, executive director of New York-based Human Rights Watch's Americas division, said Venezuela was responsible for the deaths during the protests and that the group has seen evidence and heard witnesses describe "cruel and inhuman treatment'' of protesters arrested by the National Guard between Feb. 27 and March 4.

"There is unquestionable evidence of human rights violations by agents of the Venezuelan state,'' Vivanco told Union radio.