Caracas  - The government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Friday ordered Human Rights Watch (HRW) director Jose Miguel Vivanco to leave the country "immediately," saying his criticism was part of a plot by the United States against the country.

Just hours earlier, Vivanco had made public a report that criticized Chavez's human rights record. Venezuelan authorities complained that this report constituted an "attack" on the country's institutions.

A Venezuelan Foreign Ministry statement reproduced in the official news agency ABN noted that Vivanco "disrespected norms in the constitution and the institutions" of the country and should therefore leave.

"The Venezuelan state has a policy of enforcing respect for national sovereignty and of guaranteeing the defence of the institutions and the people in the face of international attacks that respond to interests linked to and financed by the government of the United States," said the statement signed by Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro and Interior Minister Tarek El Aissami.

On Thursday, HRW released a report titled A Decade under Chavez, which said that the Venezuelan president weakened democracy in the South American country. It noted that Chavez's leftist government was politically intolerant, practiced discrimination and ignored the separation of powers.

"The Venezuelan government under President Chavez has tolerated, encouraged, and engaged in wide-ranging acts of discrimination against political opponents and critics," the report said.

The situation deteriorated in particular after a failed coup in 2002 by a conservative-military alliance against Chavez, who has been in office since February 1999.

In the attempts to control the opposition and consolidate its power, the Chavez government weakened the democratic institutions and human rights guarantees in Venezuela, Vivanco said.

The report caused outrage in Caracas, with Saul Ortega, deputy president of the federal parliament, calling Vivanco an "idiot."

It was based on lies, he stressed, adding that a strong democracy existed in Venezuela with the institutions well grounded as they "respected the interests of the people."

HRW said Chavez neutralized the judiciary's independence by increasing the number of judges at the Supreme Court to 32 and filling the new seats with political allies.

"Since this takeover occurred, the court's response to government measures that threaten fundamental rights has typically been one of passivity and acquiescence," the report said.

Venezuela may not be the country with the worst human rights record in the region, Vivanco said. Nonetheless, political violence and impunity were a cause for grave concerns. (dpa)