Posted on 02/13/2003 12:52:37 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Chávez may use focus on Iraq to crack down on private media
While the world is looking at Iraq, an ominous phenomenon is taking place closer to home: An elected president is hijacking Venezuela's democracy, and is openly announcing his intentions to move the country toward a totalitarian state.
''Nobody in the world should be surprised if in Venezuela, within a short time, we start closing down television stations,'' Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez told a roaring crowd at the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre, Brazil, on Jan. 26. ``No freedom is unlimited.''
Arguing that there is a ''media tyranny'' in Venezuela, Chávez is moving against Venezuela's independent media on five fronts, in an effort to dismantle the last major challenge to his avowed intentions to stay in power until the year 2021. His five-pronged strategy:
o Chávez has started legal procedures against the four television stations he calls ''the four horsemen of apocalypse'' -- Globovisión, RCTV, Televén and Venevisión -- alleging they have violated fairness-in-broadcasting rules. The procedures could result in the temporary or permanent suspension of their licenses.
o The Chávez-dominated National Assembly is currently debating a new Law of Social Responsibility in Radio and Television, which among other things would impose sanctions on media outlets that show ''disrespect for institutions and authorities,'' including the president.
o Last week, Chávez announced stringent currency-exchange controls, which will give the government total control over which businesses can get access to dollars at preferential rates. Chávez, a former coup plotter who now accuses the media of conspiring to topple him, has openly stated that ''there will be no dollars for the coup plotters.'' Translation: There will be no dollars for independent newspapers, which will make it difficult for them to continue buying newsprint, or paper.
o Chávez is stepping up tax investigations into the leading opposition media, including a $34,500 tax assessment against the Globovisión 24-hour news channel this week. In a statement Wednesday, Globovisión said it doesn't owe any back taxes.
o Increasingly, Chávez is branding journalists as ''traitors'' and ''counterrevolutionaries,'' and government-backed Bolivarian Circles -- groups of Chávez supporters supposedly armed to ''defend the revolution'' -- are harassing journalists, attacking their cars and surrounding television stations with threats of violence.
''All of these developments are a clear indication that there is an intention to curb freedom of expression and freedom of the press,'' Gustavo Cisneros, chairman of the media holding group that owns Venevisión, said in a telephone interview Wednesday. ``This has been a trend since the beginning of this government, but has been intensifying over the past few weeks. It could end with a censorship law that would give him total control over the media.''
Eduardo Bertoni, who monitors freedom of expression for the 34-country Organization of American States, agrees. ''If these measures are carried out, it will mean the end of freedom of expression in Venezuela,'' he told me.
Some outside observers say Venezuela's independent media are partly responsible for their current troubles. According to this school of thought, Venezuelan television stations have made the mistake of siding too openly with the opposition. Indeed, the four networks under investigation, as well as the influential El Universal and El Nacional newspapers, have been clearly supportive of the anti-Chávez movement.
But accusing them of unfair play is ridiculous: Not only should privately owned media companies be allowed to say or write what they see fit, but in Venezuela's case they have the additional moral duty to counterbalance Chávez's near absolute control of Venezuelan institutions.
Chávez controls the legislative power, the judicial system, the military and a state-owned television network -- supposedly owned by the Venezuelan people -- which he uses as a personal propaganda channel. In addition, Chávez frequently interrupts regular programming at independent radio and television stations to broadcast seemingly unending speeches whenever he feels like.
Imagine, we are only a month and a half into 2003, and there have already been 31 mandatory national broadcasts of Chávez's speeches, or those of his top ministers, according to a count listed at the Globovisión website
( www.globovision.com).
On Jan. 17, Chávez spoke for two hours and 37 minutes on national television. On Jan. 23, he spoke for three hours. Almost daily, regular news programs are interrupted to broadcast a speech by the Venezuelan president, in what would be branded a clear abuse of power in any other country.
My conclusion: Barring strong international pressures by Washington and Brazil, the two key outside players in the Venezuelan drama, Chávez may take advantage of the world focus on Iraq and crack down on the media. Then, he will have completed the transition to a rare political model -- an elected dictatorship -- that would set a terrible precedent for the rest of Latin America.
Ecuador's president gets D.C. red-carpet treatment - BY TIM JOHNSON tjohnson@herald.com
[Full Text] WASHINGTON - The Bush administration, hit by a flurry of criticism that it pays short shrift to Latin America, has given Ecuador's president a rather unusual and generous reception this week.
President Lucio Gutiérrez, a former army colonel who came to office a month ago, has found nearly all doors open to him since his arrival over the weekend.
Gutiérrez, 45, spent more than a half-hour with President Bush in the Oval Office on Tuesday, chatting about Iraq and a number of other matters. He has also seen four Cabinet secretaries, the White House drug czar, the national security advisor and a series of Capitol Hill lawmakers.
By Wednesday morning, Gutiérrez, who led a botched coup attempt in 2000, was pledging strong cooperation with the United States on a variety of issues, including a bitter dispute over $200 million that foreign oil companies operating in Ecuador claim is owed to them.
''The president of Ecuador wants to become the best friend and the best ally of the United States in the permanent and implacable fight against drug trafficking, terrorism, reducing poverty and strengthening democracy,'' Gutiérrez said.
U.S. officials said the welcome given Gutiérrez reflects their growing concern about turmoil in Latin America and their wish that Gutiérrez does not follow in the troublesome footsteps of another former army officer, President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, whose rule is plunging his country into civil conflict.
''He's gotten a great showing,'' a senior State Department official said, speaking of the Gutiérrez visit. ``I frankly think it's because people are concerned about Latin America.''
Analysts said wariness in Washington about Gutiérrez, his coup-plotting past and his leftist campaign rhetoric has lifted as U.S. officials see his economic approach and such corruption-fighting proposals as one to put all state contracts on the Internet.
''Washington wants to see this man succeed,'' said Steve Johnson, a Latin America policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank in the capital.
Ecuador has struggled with instability. When Gutiérrez came to office Jan. 15, after winning a surprisingly strong popular vote, he became the sixth president since 1996. [End]
Venezuela is about to learn.
Nothing new. Hitler was elected.
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