Nightfall In Venezuela
The last light of freedom in Venezuela is being extinguished. In two weeks, the Chavez dictatorship will silence the last independent television network in that country. Radio Caracas Television, or RCTV, will be no more after 53 years. The network is incredibly popular in Venezuela and some 70% of the people oppose (T)Hugo closing the network down. Which means nothing whatsoever to Chavez.
It's not just that Ch?vez is eliminating, at a stroke, the media that gave the biggest platform to his opponents. Almost as significant is the way he has gone about it. The process against RCTV has consisted almost entirely of statements by the president on television. The law governing the license Ch?vez says he is withdrawing has been ignored; RCTV's appeals to the courts have gone unanswered. Protests and appeals from the Organization of American States, the Chilean senate, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the Inter American Press Association, and countless human rights and press freedom NGOs have been answered with crude insults. Ch?vez called OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza "pendejo," a vulgarism referring to pubic hair.
"Say what they say, do what they do, howl where they want, the license will not be renewed," was the way Ch?vez put it. In other words, neither domestic nor international institutions matter in a regime that is becoming increasingly personal. "Ch?vez's position is that 'no one can change the decisions I make,' and anyone who tries to do so is a traitor," Granier says. "That includes the judges on the Supreme Court, the OAS — anyone who disagrees with him is an enemy."
Those whom Ch?vez calls enemies suffer more than insults. Granier says some 150 journalists and station workers have been assaulted by pro-government thugs. He distributes photos of one of several attempts to storm the station made by Ch?vez's gangs, who set a truck on fire and sent it hurtling at RCTV's front entrance. No one has been held accountable for the attacks.
In his countless television appearances, Ch?vez has made clear that his problem with Granier and RCTV is political. He accuses both of supporting an abortive coup against him in 2002. There's no question that Granier and most of his journalists oppose the government. During the attempted coup the network broadcast movies and music videos. Granier says that if Ch?vez believes that amounts to treason he's welcome to prosecute the station or its directors in the government-controlled courts. "If I'm guilty, charge me," Granier said. "He's never done it."
Let's see (T)Hugo Chavez's American shill Joseph Kennedy defend this action as the will of the people. Explain how overruling the overwhelming popular support for the network by authoritarian decree is the right thing to do. It looks like it will be a long night for Venezuela.
World news | Gaius Monday, 14 May , 2007
By skh.pcola, Monday, 14 May , 2007 @ 9:00 am
We’ll have to wait and see how far his countrymen will tolerate being pushed toward totalitarianism. I’m thinking that they’re getting close to snapping.
And I thought “pendejo” meant something else entirely…
By Quilly Mammoth, Monday, 14 May , 2007 @ 11:08 pm
Coming soon to a Democrat controlled Congress near you.
By Julia_1984, Tuesday, 15 May , 2007 @ 2:10 pm
During the attempted coup the network broadcast movies and music videos. ”
If i remember correctly, during those days of the “attempted coup” of April, 2002, many Chavez supporters, with guns, gathered around the RCTV building and didnt let any journalist to get out. So they had no other option but broadcast movies and music videos, although, that programation was constantly interrupted by live videos of the journalist and RCTV workers asking to the Chavez supporters to stop the violence around the building and to let them get out of the building. They were practically kidnnaped in there.
PS: Im venezuelan and honestly, I can barely speak english, so excuses about the grammar and spelling mistakes…