The report from IACHR, an autonomous organ of the Organization of American States, comes at an awkward time for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, currently preoccupied with easing politically sensitive shortages of electricity and water in his home country.

The scathing criticism of the government's performance no immediate reaction in the Chavez administration, which regards the OAS and IACHR with suspicion because both are based in Washington.

At the Cancun, Mexico, summit of some 30 regional leaders this week, Venezuela emerged as a key supporter of a new organization to rival the OAS and serve as a regional bloc bringing together Central and South American countries.

The so-called Summit of Unity was marred by sharp verbal exchanges between Chavez and Colombian counterpart Alvaro Uribe, who supports stronger ties with the United States and last year signed agreements to allow U.S. troops use of Colombian bases to fight the war on narcotics.

Chavez condemned the Colombian-U.S. agreement and punished skeptics within the Venezuelan society by shutting down independent media and silencing voices of dissent through purges and removal of critics from key positions.

The new regional bloc of Latin and Caribbean countries agreed at the summit will exclude the United States and Canada, where criticism of Chavez's style of government has been frequent and explicit. Chavez says the criticism is biased and is designed to engineer his ouster from office.

IACHR said in its 319-page report Venezuela made progress in easing illiteracy at the same time as government agencies continued to suppress dissent.

"Conditions do not exist for human rights defenders and journalists to be able to freely carry out their work," said IACHR.

Among abuses and irregularities the commission's investigators found was frequent punitive action against the media, farmers and trade unionists, participants in civil protests against government actions and policies, the indigenous people and women.

Although some progress was made in extending basic services and healthcare to poorer communities, that coincided with suppression of dissent. Social progress cannot be made at the expense of other fundamental rights, said the commission.

As a result the commission found that the government's restrictive practices led to the weakening of the rule of law and democracy in Venezuela.

The commission findings followed severe restrictions placed on its activities by the Chavez government while its investigators pursued their research.

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