Chavez's war against free speech

Washington Post:

Looking smart in red pants and a summer blouse, television reporter Jeanelie Briceño arrived at the headquarters of President Hugo Chávez's United Socialist Party last week expecting to get in, just like every other journalist showing up for a scheduled news conference.

"You were not invited," said the man at the door, as big as a bouncer and dressed in the government's trademark red.

The man checked off the names of the networks permitted inside -- they were all either state-owned or private stations that have markedly toned down their critiques of the president. Briceño was the only person locked out. Her employer, Globovisión, is the sole vociferously anti-government network still broadcasting on Venezuela's public airwaves.

In recent weeks, officials in this country -- where the government controls a media apparatus devoted to glowing coverage of the president -- have appeared increasingly obsessed with the 24-hour, all-news station.

Citing "media terrorism," Chávez and his ministers have publicly accused Globovisión's directors of hatching assassination plots against the president, generating panic by covering an earthquake before state television issued an official report, and inciting Venezuelans to deadly violence. In an April address to Latin American diplomats in Washington, Andrés Izarra, a Venezuelan government official, likened Globovisión's coverage to Rwandan radio broadcasts that helped provoke genocide in 1994.

Last week, police raided the home of Globovisión's president, Guillermo Zuloaga, and ordered the station to pay $2.3 million for giving free airtime to anti-government groups during a 2002 oil strike. The station faces three investigations into its coverage, which may lead to its closing. Officials at the United Nations and the Organization of American States have raised concerns about the government's measures, as have several press freedom groups.

"We think he's ratcheting up his efforts to stifle dissent," said Carlos Lauría, Americas program director for the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. "Our concern is that this is a direct attack against free expression and that the actions of President Chávez, the actions by the Venezuelan government, are undermining democracy."

Though many of the print and radio media remain critical, officials appear determined to take Globovisión off the air in Caracas and Valencia, the two cities in which it broadcasts, or at least to marginalize it.

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Chavez's action is an admission of how fragile his government is, that it cannot withstand someone who provides a different point of view. Despots have never handled criticism very well and Chavez is no exception.

As for violence, most of the violence in Venezuela is perpetrated by criminals who have not been prosecuted by the Chavez regime. Many of them may be connected to Chavez. There has been some evidence that Chavez has facilitated the transportation of drugs from Colombia. While the government goes through he pretense of fighting trafficking, Venezuela has been the conduit for drugs going to West Africa and on to Europe.