Enemy Of The State

(T)Hugo Chavez, fresh off the silencing of one independent television network, has declared another independent and enemy of the state and is threatening to shut it down as well. It's "crime"? Reporting the protests that the first shutdown has caused.

Tens of thousands of Venezuelans marched in Caracas in a fourth consecutive day of protests over Chavez's closure of the RCTV network – a move which has sparked international criticism that the leftist leader's reforms are undermining democratic freedoms.

State television showed hundreds of government supporters marching in downtown Caracas celebrating Chavez's decision.

"Enemies of the homeland, particularly those behind the scenes, I will give you a name: Globovision. Greetings gentlemen of Globovision, you should watch where you are going," Chavez said in a broadcast that all channels had to show.

"I recommend you take a tranquilizer and get into gear, because if not, I am going to do what is necessary," he added.

He accused Globovision of trying to incite his assassination and of misreporting protests over the closure of RCTV in a manner that could whip up a situation similar to the coup attempt against him in 2002.

Since coming to power in 1999, Chavez has won the support of the nation's poor majority with a multi-billion dollar social spending program, financed by the nation's oil revenues, that helped him win a landslide re-election last year.

But his critics say his moves to centralize power, politicize key institutions like the military, judiciary and oil industry are threatening democracy. He is forging a single governing party, ruling by decree and considering abolishing limits on how many terms a president can serve.

The enemies will be declared with greater frequency now. The process of establishing his little police state is well underway.

UPDATE: Believe it or not, it gets even worse. (T)Hugo is threatening to sue CNN and he charges that the "enemy of the state" television was attempting to incite his assassination by – get this – showing footage of the 1981 assassination attempt on Pope John Paul II.

Venezuela says it will file charges against US cable network CNN for linking President Hugo Chavez to Al Qaeda.

It says it will also sue a Venezuelan TV network for encouraging Mr Chavez's assassination.

The move comes a day after popular Venezuelan TV network RCTV went off the air after the Chavez Government cancelled its broadcast licence.

Information Minister William Lara has presented what he says is CNN footage displaying pictures of Mr Chavez juxtaposed with those of an Al Qaeda leader.

Mr Lara says CNN also aired a story about the Venezuelan protests but used images taken in Mexico of an unrelated story.

"CNN broadcast a lie which linked President Chavez to violence and murder," he said.

Denial

CNN has issued a statement strongly denying being "engaged in a campaign to discredit or attack Venezuela".

The news network has acknowledged a video mix-up and "aired a detailed correction and expressed regret for the involuntary error".

Regarding the Al Qaeda leader, the network says "unrelated news stories can be juxtaposed in a given program segment just as a newspaper page or a news website may have unconnected stories adjacent to each other".

The Venezuelan Government has also filed charges against local network Globovision for what it says was indirectly encouraging Mr Chavez's murder by airing footage of the 1981 assassination attempt on late pope John Paul II.

"In my view, this television network, in this specific part of its programming, committed the offence of incitement to assassination against the Venezuelan head of state," Mr Lara said.

Seriously, I really suspect this man is clinically insane. He's certainly a megalomaniac with delusions of Popehood.