Venezuela's Last Opposition TV Owner Arrested

ei.sdraob

I wonder what our resident Chavez "admirers" will make of this

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.
....
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.
....
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."
....
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.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iyUV62oPuXBor_gBTOupaNkH66bgD9ELUIT00

interesting how "socialism" doesnt work without crushing any opposition :cool: and reverting to authoritarianism

Biggins

Think it's time for Chavez and his clan to go...

ei.sdraob

ap wrote:

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.

im waiting to be labelled as a liar and CIA operative

old hippy

ei.sdraob wrote: »

interesting how "socialism" doesnt work without crushing any opposition :cool: and reverting to authoritarianism

Much like capitalism, in fact. Still; I don't remember the socialists crushing the opposition in Sweden when they were in power. Or Zapatero, in Spain, for that matter. Has he crushed anyone yet?

fontanalis

old hippy wrote: »

Much like capitalism, in fact. Still; I don't remember the socialists crushing the opposition in Sweden when they were in power. Or Zapatero, in Spain, for that matter. Has he crushed anyone yet?

Look over there.

mike65

No doubt the usual suspects will be on here soon enough to tell us how this is neccessary to maintain democracy in Venezuela

fontanalis

mike65 wrote: »

No doubt the usual suspects will be on here soon enough to tell us how this is neccessary to maintain democracy in Venezuela

And how great of a country it is and how their citizens are lucky man, but I wouldn't live there.

Fr Tod Umptious

The revolution will now definitely not be televised

20Cent

Since every story about Chavez is blown out of proportion I think I'd wait a bit until the full story comes out. Seems like the guy was detained for 2 hours, a lot less than Seanie. Terrible dictator there!!

BluePlanet

The article doesn't say what the geezer said.
But it does state that the accused was " purportedly commenting that it was a shame a short-lived 2002 coup against Chavez failed."

If the TV network is advocating the assassination or the overthrow of the legal government, i'm not too surprised by his detention.

whynotwhycanti

Let me first say i am not a fan of Chavez and i'm not defendng his actions in relation to trying to censor what the media reports.

However do we really believe that the western media is all free and unbiased. Rupert Murdoch controls the majority of the news sources in the US, the UK, Australia etc. In the western world, three corporations control the majority of the sources for news, Reuters, Associated press and i can't remember the other. I am not saying they are oppressive, but if you turn on the news or read the paper and believe you are reading unbiased, free uncensored news you are greatly mistaken.

ei.sdraob

i know maybe we should jail the editors of AP

Elevator

BluePlanet wrote: »

The article doesn't say what the geezer said.
But it does state that the accused was " purportedly commenting that it was a shame a short-lived 2002 coup against Chavez failed."

If the TV network is advocating the assassination or the overthrow of the legal government, i'm not too surprised by his detention.

if I was Hugo I'd have got him arrested too

at least he holds the cards when it comes to his nations oil, not like our own ****ing giving it away!!

OhNoYouDidn't

He was held for 2 hours for promoting an armed coup d'etat.

Wow.

In other words a great deal less draconian than Section 31.

Dirk Gently

OhNoYouDidn't wrote: »

Wow.
.

If you found that impressive then stick around. Its an election year in Venezuela so "Hugo chavez ate my baby" headlines will be coming thick and fast, cheer lead and repeated ad nauseam by those who think anything but zero regulation free market extremism is in fact totalitarianism.

alejandro1977

clown bag wrote: »

If you found that impressive then stick around. Its an election year in Venezuela so "Hugo chavez ate my baby" headlines will be coming thick and fast, cheer lead and repeated ad nauseam by those who think anything but zero regulation free market extremism is in fact totalitarianism.

now a judge arrested; what does Chavez have to do to lose the support of his fans...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/04/world/americas/04venez.html?scp=2&sq=chavez&st=cse

Criticism of Chávez Stifled by Arrests

LOS TEQUES, Venezuela — When Judge María Lourdes Afiuni issued a ruling in December that irked President Hugo Chávez, he did little to contain his outrage. The president, contending on national television that she would have been put before a firing squad in earlier times, sent his secret intelligence police to arrest her.

Then the agents took her to the overcrowded women’s prison in this city of slums near Caracas. They put her in a cell near more than 20 inmates whom Judge Afiuni had sentenced on charges like murder and drug smuggling.

Exile 1798

I haven't been reading boards.ie very long.

However, In the time I have barely a week has gone by without a poster creating a thread about the latest outrage and invariably questioning what the "Chavez fans" though of it.

Before I started reading boards.ie was it a hotbed of pro-Chavez activity?

It seems the only people here fixated on Venezuela and Chavez are those who are passionately opposed. Yet always they frame their obsession as a response to supposedly pro-Chavez posters.

This obsession of the international Right with Venezuela is something to be concerned about given their history of de-legitimizing Democratic Latin American governments and supporting military coups and Fascist murder campaigns in the region.

When a three times elected President is called a totalitarian dictator, when a plebiscite to alter the Constitution to abolish term limits is portrayed as Chavez declaring himself "President for life" and when the American government recognizes a military regime as the legitimate government of Venezuela within hours of them being installed in a coup d'état, we have much to be concerned with.

Is it really accurate to say that the position that South American Democracies shouldn't be subject to demonizing propaganda campaigns, that their opposition movements shouldn't be funded by foreign governments, and that their militaries shouldn't be supported for overthrowing their elected governments, is a pro-Chazez position?

I would simply regard this as the decent position to hold.