Mini-Chavezes work against liberties, too

More Chavez news as opposition leaders call for the release of protesters from the past weeks’ demostrrations against Venezuela’s government crack down on oppostion media outlets. From the Associated Press today;

Former presidential candidate Manuel Rosales said protests over the government’s move to halt the broadcasts of Radio Caracas Television show that “freedom cannot be negotiated nor bargained.”

Protesters have filled the capital’s plazas and streets since the opposition-aligned channel went off the air at midnight Sunday. Chavez refused to renew its broadcast license, and police have clashed with angry crowds hurling rocks and bottles.

A total of 182 people — mostly university students and minors — have been detained in nearly 100 protests since Sunday, Justice Minister Pedro Carreno said late Tuesday. At least 30 were charged with violent acts, prosecutors said, but it was unclear how many remained behind bars.

Manuel Rosales also pointed out that Globovision, Chavez next target, is running some disturbing home videos;

Rosales noted that a home video broadcast on the Globovision network showed unidentified men in the doorway of a government office — apparently Chavez allies — firing guns at unseen targets. “For that there is no justice?” he said.

Meanwhile, the Bolivian Senate is condemning Chavez publicly for interferring in that country according to El Universal.com;

The Bolivian Senate, with a majority of opponents of President Evo Morales, accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez of interfering with Bolivian domestic affairs, and demanded the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to make the relevant protest.

The Washington Times’ Martin Arostegui reports today that Evo Morales and Rafael Correa of Equador also have plans to shut down their opposition media outlets;

    Bolivian President Evo Morales and Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa both announced steps to crack down on independent broadcasters within days of Mr. Chavez’s closure on Sunday of Venezuela’s main independent television station, RCTV.
    Speaking before an international gathering of leftist intellectuals in Cochabamba last week, Mr. Morales proposed creating a tribunal to oversee the operations of privately owned press and broadcast outlets. Mr. Correa announced over the weekend that he would order a review of the broadcasting licenses of opposition news channels in his country.
    Both leaders have drawn support and inspiration from Mr. Chavez’s increasingly authoritarian government since coming to power in the past 18 months, and both are drafting new constitutions that would greatly increase their own powers.
    Mr. Correa has ousted 51 opposition deputies from his nation’s Congress and Mr. Morales this week ordered the arrests of four high court judges after they issued rulings that challenged his government.
    “The main adversaries of my presidency, of my government, are certain communications media,” Mr. Morales said at the Fifth World Conference of Artists and Intellectuals in Defense of Humanity, a Venezuelan-backed group supporting “the process of change in Latin America.”
    Appearing alongside Cuba’s minister of culture, Abel Prieto, Mr. Morales suggested “drawing on the experience of our friends in Venezuela and Cuba” to establish closer controls over the press.

And why wouldn’t they? What price has the international community foisted upon Chavez for his stunning moves in the last few months? He promises to aid terrorist-enabling Iran, supports Iran’s nuclear program, pays for the election of Chavez-friendly dictators in nearby Bolivia, Equador and Nicaragua and cavorts with the Cubans-arguably the worst human rights offenders in the hemisphere. And the world stands by, shaking it’s collective head.

From the WashTimes piece;

   “Morales identifies his enemies,” read a banner headline in the Santa Cruz newspaper El Mundo, which pictured a newsroom in the cross hairs of a telescopic rifle.
    Mr. Morales tried to deflect mounting protests on Sunday by saying that he had no immediate plans to close down any TV station and that his criticism was aimed at owners of news organizations and not at individual journalists.

And Correa targets Equadorian media;

 In Ecuador, meanwhile, Mr. Correa issued a statement saying that “radio and TV frequencies have been granted in ways that are frequently dark and it’s time to analyze the matter.”
    He accused owners of major news outlets of using political influence to get their broadcasting licenses and using the press “to defend private interests that are often corrupt.” He also announced legal action against Ecuador’s opposition newspaper La Hora.

Spain, in the meantime, is negotiating for the release of political prisoners in Havana. This link is a few days old from my guilty pleasure Uncommon Sense.

And still, the American Left remains silent on the civil rights of brown people.

Category: Foreign Policy, Hugo Chavez