Human rights workers forced from Venezuela

CARACAS, Venezuela, Sept. 20 (UPI) -- Two staffers from Human Rights Watch were forcibly expelled from Venezuela after they issued a report critical of President Hugo Chavez, the group says.

Jose Miguel Vivanco and Daniel Wilkinson were confronted by Venezuelan officials at their Caracas hotel Friday, accused of anti-state activities, taken to airport and put on a plane to Sao Paulo, Brazil, Human Rights Watch told CNN.

The confrontation came shortly after the group issued a 267-page report linking Chavez's presidential activities with an erosion of democratic institutions in the oil-rich South American nation.

"This is the first time this has happened in the Americas," Conor Fortune, a Human Rights Watch spokesman, told the broadcaster. "The events basically prove many of the points made in the report: that Venezuela is still a very repressive country under Chavez."