Villaraigosa Walks Back Praise for Baku’s Human Rights Record

California’s Democratic gubernatorial hopeful and former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, through a statement sent to Asbarez, walked back comments he made in praise of Azerbaijan’s human rights record during a 2014 junket to Baku.

Villaraigosa traveled to Baku in October of 2014 and was a speaker at the government-sponsored Baku International Humanitarian Forum, where Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev also spoke. In a television interview while in Baku Villaraigosa called Azerbaijan a “model nation”