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Jan. 23 is an important day in Venezuelan history. On this day in 1958, street demonstrations topped the dictatorship of Marcos Perez Jimenez, and opened Venezuela’s way to multiparty democracy.
Venezuela’s beleaguered opposition parties called a demonstration this past Saturday, the 42nd anniversary of the fall of Jimenez. President Chavez ordered counter demonstrations , busing in government employees from around the country. (When I tried Friday to arrange interviews with pro-Chavez officials in Maracaibo, not one of them was available: all were under orders to leave at once for the capital to participate in the Saturday march.)
At the government demonstration, Chavez delivered one of his increasingly interminable speeches. (His weekly Sunday address to the nation, Alo Presidente, now sometimes stretches as long as 8 hours.) The country’s most popular television station, RCTV, declined to broadcast the speech.
For this omission, the government on Sunday ordered cable providers to cease carrying RCTV and three stations. RCTV had previously been banned from broadcasting on the airwaves. Here’s the Venezuelan government’s announcement of the order and here’s a helpful Washington Post story.
The ban is another big step toward the destruction of independent media in Venezuela.
blowtorch_bob // Jan 25, 2010 at 12:31 am
Ha, we’re fine ones to talk about the “free press.”
Remember the WMD’s that were SUPPOSED to be in Iraq and how this message was drilled into our heads night after night, day after day…and when it turned out they didn’t exist … whoops!…let’s blame some low level official who was peddling faulty intelligence…
Yep, we’re fine ones to be lecturing the rest of the world on the virtues of free press.