Last remaining critical TV channel falls to Chavez

[citizen k]

Anti-Chavez TV channel owner arrested in Venezuela
By FABIOLA SANCHEZ, Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela – The owner of Venezuela's only remaining TV channel that takes a critical line against President Hugo Chavez was arrested Thursday, raising concerns the government is pursuing a widening crackdown to silence opponents.
Guillermo Zuloaga, owner of Globovision, was arrested on a warrant for remarks that were deemed "offensive" to the president, Attorney General Luisa Ortega said.

Zuloaga said military intelligence agents detained him at an airport in the northwestern state of Falcon as he was preparing to fly on his private plane with his wife to the Caribbean island of Bonaire, where they planned to vacation.

The arrest could be a decisive development in Chavez's drive to rein in a channel that he has accused of trying to undermine his government. Globovision has been the only stridently anti-Chavez channel on the air since another opposition-aligned channel, RCTV, was forced off cable and satellite TV in January. RCTV was booted off the open airwaves in 2007.

Ortega said prosecutors are investigating Zuloaga for remarks he made during a recent Inter American Press Association meeting on the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba, where he joined other media executives in criticizing Chavez's government for limiting free speech and cracking down on critics.

Pro-Chavez lawmaker Manuel Villalba urged prosecutors on Wednesday to investigate Zuloaga for allegedly saying that Venezuela's government is cracking down on its critics and purportedly commenting that it was a shame a short-lived 2002 coup against Chavez failed.

"He must assume his responsibility," Villalba told state-run Radio Nacional.

Zuloaga called his arrest an outrage, but did not address the accusations against him. Television footage showed him being led through the airport while some people chanted "Freedom!" He later was escorted into a Caracas courthouse.

Arresting Zuloaga shows Chavez's government is "acting like a totalitarian government, like Cuba," said Alejandro Aguirre, president of the Inter American Press Association, which is based in Miami and has clashed with Chavez for years on free-speech issues.
The Attorney General's Office said in a statement that prosecutors are investigating Zuloaga for allegedly violating a law prohibiting Venezuelans from spreading "false information through any medium," including newspapers, radio, television, e-mails or leaflets, "that cause public panic."

Zuloaga, Globovision's majority shareholder, could face a five-year prison sentence if convicted, the statement said.

He has previously been singled out by authorities. Last May, prosecutors began investigating him for a suspected "environmental crime" related to wild animals he had hunted and mounted in his Caracas home. The following month, prosecutors charged Zuloaga with usury, alleging unlawful markups at two Toyota dealerships that he jointly owns after authorities seized 24 vehicles being stored at a home he owns.

Thursday's arrest came as pro-Chavez lawmaker Cilia Flores, president of the National Assembly, announced that opposition politician Wilmer Azuaje had been detained for an unspecified crime. Azuaje, a former Chavez ally, has alleged corruption by members of Chavez's family in their home state of Barinas — accusations the family has denied.

Zuloaga's arrest also came three days after opposition politician Oswaldo Alvarez Paz was detained for remarks made on a Globovision talk show March 8.

Alvarez Paz has been charged with conspiracy, spreading false information and publicly inciting crime after remarking that Venezuela has turned into a haven for drug traffickers. He also said he backed allegations by a Spanish judge that Venezuela's government has cooperated with the Basque separatist group ETA and Colombian rebels.

Chavez has dismissed those accusations as lies. Alvarez Paz stands by his words and denies breaking the law.

Miguel Henrique Otero, editor of the Venezuelan newspaper El Nacional, said Zuloaga's arrest shows Chavez's government is growing more authoritarian and starting to "look more like a traditional dictatorship."

"That's what dictatorships do: arrest and take people away, jail them and convict them for crimes of opinion," Otero said. He said he thinks the government is acting now because Chavez has been losing popularity and "they're nervous."

"They want to create so much fear hanging over people that it silences opponents," he said.

Chavez remains the country's most popular politician, but his support has dipped as the economy contracts and as Venezuelans cope with inflation, rampant crime and rolling blackouts in parts of the country.

Chavez's popularity slipped below 50 percent in polls late last year, and has hovered between 40 percent and 50 percent in recent months, said pollster Luis Vicente Leon of the Caracas-based firm Datanalisis.

Carlos Correa, director of the rights group Espacio Publico, condemned Zuloaga's arrest. "These types of actions against freedom of expression, and against the right that all Venezuelans have to listen to plurality, distinct visions, must be rejected," he said.

Organization of American States Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza urged Venezuelan authorities to release Zuloaga. He added that if Zuloaga is tried, "it be done with respect for the presumption of innocence and with all the guarantees offered to him by the law."

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, an arm of the OAS, said Zuloaga's detention shows "the lack of independence of the judicial branch and the use of the criminal justice system to punish critical statements."

The U.S. government has raised similar concerns in the past, saying in a State Department human rights assessment this month that "harassment and intimidation of the political opposition and the media" have intensified in Venezuela in the past year.


Associated Press writers Christopher Toothaker and Ian James contributed to this report.

[jimmy olsen]

Sad, but not unexpected.

[CountDeMoney]

Anybody have any stats on Venezuelan immigration for the last 10 years?  Are people trying to leave?

[Jaron]

Yes.

[Ed Anger]

I'd like to have Pirate Scum back, and return lettow to the dumpster.

[Strix]

Shouldn't it read "confirming concerns" rather than "raising concerns". It's a bit late to start raising concerns when Chavez has accomplished his goal.

[garbon]

Hopefully MSil will come tell us about how great this is for the Union.

[derspiess]

Anybody have any stats on Venezuelan immigration for the last 10 years?  Are people trying to leave?

I don't have any stats, but it seems to me like it probably peaked around the mid-2000's.  I think most of the ones with the sense and means to get out, did so fairly early in the past decade.

In various circles, I've met about 15-20 Venezuelan emigres over the past 6 or 7 years.  All of them were intelligent, well-educated, cultured, etc. (well, except for one dude who was a sloppy drunk) and if they stay in the US permanently, it's Venezuela's loss & our gain. 

[derspiess]

Shouldn't it read "confirming concerns" rather than "raising concerns". It's a bit late to start raising concerns when Chavez has accomplished his goal.

It's typical journo/diplomatic understatedness.  Heaven forbid we call something what it is-- we have to pretend to be naive about it.

[Vricklund]

Chavez is just a symptom of what's wrong with Venezuela. I doubt life around the orinoco would be alot better without him.

[derspiess]

Chavez is just a symptom of what's wrong with Venezuela. I doubt life around the orinoco would be alot better without him.

Everyone I know from Venezuela seems to agree that life was better before him.

[Vricklund]

Chavez is just a symptom of what's wrong with Venezuela. I doubt life around the orinoco would be alot better without him.

Everyone I know from Venezuela seems to agree that life was better before him.

Heh, isn't that how people in general feel? Not even nostalgia is as good as it used to be.

The Venezuelans are screwed. If they remove Chavez they'll just end up getting robbed by the same people that he removed from power.

[Admiral Yi]

Heh, isn't that how people in general feel? Not even nostalgia is as good as it used to be.

It's probably more a function of the fact that Venezuelan emigres to the US typically come from middle and upper classes.

The Venezuelans are screwed. If they remove Chavez they'll just end up getting robbed by the same people that he removed from power.

Robbed how?  Did Venezuela have a particular reputation for corruption pre-Chavez?

[citizen k]

The Venezuelans are screwed. If they remove Chavez they'll just end up getting robbed by the same people that he removed from power.

Except for the ones that played ball with him, it's business as usual.

Only fewer voices besides Chavez.

[Vricklund]

Robbed how?  Did Venezuela have a particular reputation for corruption pre-Chavez?

Not worse than any other south american nation I presume?

Except for the ones that played ball with him, it's business as usual.

Yeah, sort of the definition of screwed.