Daily Journal Editor found dead in Caracas (Hugo Chavez stamping out free speech)

Janet Kelly from Philadelphia is seen in this file photo of Feb. 1, 2000. Kelly, 56, editor in chief of The Daily Journal newspaper and a political analyst was found dead in Caracas, Venezuela, Monday, March 24, 2003. The cause of death was under investigation.(AP Photo/Cheo Pacheco, El Universal, File)

Petroleumworld.com - Caracas´s Daily Journal : Going against the tide with a positive bet on Venezuela's future (VHeadline.com VH 02 05 03) - [Full text] Ownership of the Caracas Daily Journal is expected to pass today to a group of TDJ, C.A. investors led by IESA economist Janet Kelly who tells VHeadline.com that the DJ, founded as Venezuela's first English-language newspaper in 1945 by New Yorker Jules Waldman, will continue operations as a totally independent newspaper.

Kelly says the Daily Journal C.A. -- the previous owners -- will cede all rights to the use of the Daily Journal name to TDJ, C.A. and that a shareholder's assembly for the latter has been called for tomorrow, Thursday, among other things to name a new board of directors.

"The new Daily Journal will operate as a totally independent newspaper. Our mission will be to expand the service the Daily Journal provides to the business community, local and global. We will give special attention to key economic sectors such as oil, gas and mining as well as providing the most up-to-date and useful information on Venezuelan economics, politics and society."

"The Daily Journal will continue its traditional reputation as a source of objective reporting and analysis and will express it's own editorial view on national and international events ... to develop new activities on the Internet to reach a wider audience throughout the world and to be the newspaper of choice of all those in Venezuela who believe in the importance of a global outlook, from young students of English to large corporations."

Of course, readers need not worry: the DJ will continue to provide them with their favorites: the bridge column, their comics, spectacular coverage of world sports from cricket to ice hockey and all the things that have made the Daily Journal a point of reference in Venezuela for the past 57 years since its founding by Jules Waldman."

After an obligatory period for publication of notification of the sale according to the Venezuelan Commercial Code, the final closing of the deal will occur March 10. Janet Kelly, the new owner-editor, says: "It is time to invest in Venezuela and get the economy going again ... for the benefit of investors and of the whole population, including especially the poor ... there is no reason why the country should impoverish itself because of political conflict ... those who wish to govern should be the first to desire reactivation and reconciliation." [End]

Venezuelan Newsprint Stocks Running Low Under Chavez’s Restrictions*** CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez is using currency controls to limit press freedom by denying Venezuelan newspapers the dollars needed to import newsprint, a newspaper director said Wednesday. Nationwide newsprint stocks are down to one month's supply, said Miguel Otero, director of Caracas' El Nacional. "Nobody knows how the newspapers are going to operate after April," Otero said. "The government wants to silence us."

Chavez accuses Venezuela's news media of conspiring to overthrow his leftist government. Many newspapers endorsed a recent, failed two-month general strike to demand early presidential elections. Chavez's term ends in 2007. ***

IAPA stresses threat to media in Venezuela, Haiti, Cuba, and around the world *** SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - The InterAmerican Press Association, the IAPA, said Sunday that attacks on the press continue around the globe and in the Americas, and singled out Venezuela, Cuba and Haiti for criticism Sunday. IAPA president Andres Garcia said "attacks against the press continue around the globe and locally."

Garcia called the Venezuelan government "abusive" and accused it of threatening the media daily. Journalists in Venezuela have been threatened and shot at while covering clashes between pro- and anti-government protesters in the last year. Garcia called attempts by the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez to impose a media content law as "nothing short of censorship of the press, while it continues to tighten restrictions on the major television networks." He announced that the IAPA will send a fact-finding mission to Venezuela soon.***

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez displays a frontpage of a local newspaper which reads 'Blood bath' during his weekly television show in southwest Guanare, Venezuela, Sunday, March 23, 2003. Chavez, an outspoken critic of what he calls 'colonial powers' exerting their influence over other countries, irritated the United States in 2000 by visiting Saddam Hussein.(AP Photo/Simon Garcia, Miraflores, HO)

Venezuela's Chavez rejects war in Iraq - Congratulates anti-war protestors on New York turnout***CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez said he does not support the U.S.-led war in Iraq and applauded positions taken by other countries and protesters opposed to war. "Venezuela rejects ... the war which has been unleashed in recent days," Chavez said Saturday. "We are highly comforted to know that the great majority of the world's countries have come out against the war in Iraq." The president's comments were his first openly condemning the U.S. policy of invading Iraq. Other senior ministers had previously criticized the military action, however. Chavez also congratulated anti-war protesters in New York on a high turnout Saturday. ***

Hugo Chavez - Venezuela

I found this. Nothing in U.S. news except the photo with the caption.

Daily Journal editor-publisher Janet Kelly found dead, murdered? - By Roy S. Carson - [Full text] Leading economist and editor-publisher of the Caracas Daily Journal, Janet Kelly (56) has been found dead close to the Cota Mil highway above Caracas ... her Toyota Yaris automobile was parked at a tourist vantage point overlooking the upper Altamira suburb of Caracas close to a major exit from the highway and her body found over the edge, 150 meters below.

At this moment there are no indications as to how Janet's death occurred, but police detectives are at the scene which has been cordoned off while investigations proceed.

Our highly-regarded colleague Janet Kelly had only just taken over the Daily Journal (March 10) and had great ambitions for the publication under her leadership. She was also part of an international negotiating committee between the Chavez Frias government and the opposition.

Philadelphia-born Janet had graduated from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (USA) and during a 21-year residency in Venezuela had become a much-respected economics professor at the Institute for Higher Economic Studies (IESA) in Caracas.

Janet was an associate professor at the Simon Bolivar University (USB) in Caracas and a leading light in the expat American comunity as well as a director at the Venezuelan American Chamber of Commerce (VenAmCham).

Recently she had gathered a group of investors to buy-out the DJ from the Neumann family in a deal that closed earlier this month.

Chacao Mayor Leopoldo Lopez is at the scene and says that it is up to the experts to determine what happened ... suicide has apparently been ruled out and it is thought that she may otherwise have been the target of political assassination. She leaves behind two sons, Juan Pablo and Daniel Escobar. [End]

The Castro in Caracas - Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, in Fidel's image*** Welcome to the world of Hugo Chavez. It would be easy to dismiss Chavez as a character from a Woody Allen movie if the stakes weren't so high and the consequences so grave. Recent defectors from the presidential palace accuse Chavez of supporting Hczbollah and al-Qaeda activists in Venezuela, and Chavez was one of the few heads of state to denounce the U.S-lcd war in Afghanistan. In 2000, he became the first Western leader since the Gulf War to pay a state visit to Saddam. ("Imagine what the Pharisecs will say when they see mc with Saddam Hussein," he gloated.) Chavez has also imported hundreds of Cuban activists-he calls them "sports instructors" to arm his thousands of civilian supporters in the "Bolivarian Circles," a private militia that rivals the national police force.

........Chavez calls President Bush's efforts to reach a hemispheric-free-trade deal by 2005 "the caldron of hell itself" and is threatening to create a more protectionist, Latins-only trade bloc to derail the U.S-backed initiative. His politicization of the state oil company has drained it of nearly one million man-years of experi- ence and made Caracas an increasingly unreliable supplier of oil all the more worrisome as instability looms in the Arab world. And if Chavez really is providing safe haven to rebels who are holding American citizens hostage and trying to overthrow Colombia's democratic gov- ernment, the Bush administration can expect calls from Bogota -and Capitol Hill-to designate Venezuela as a state sponsor of terrorism.***

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