Stuart Munckton
The Venezuelan government has reacted to fresh allegations, originating from inside the US. According to an October 11 Venezuelanalysis.com article, the Miami-based Inter-American Press Association accused the left-wing government of President Hugo Chavez of violations of freedom of speech during its annual meeting in Indianapolis. The IAPA has more than 1000 members, including editors and publishers from across the Americas.
Head of the IAPA committee of freedom of press and information Gonzalo Marroquon claimed that the Chavez government "maintains a constant confrontation with media companies linked to the opposition or those which are independent". The IAPA called on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to "maintain a permanent vigilance" over the Chavez government.
The IAPA singled out the Law for Social Responsibility and Television, passed last year by the National Assembly, as an example of attempts to silence criticism of the government. The law has come under fire from the opposition inside Venezuela, as well as from the US government, despite the fact that the law doesn't give the government the power to censor the media, but merely introduces basic regulation over content, tasked to an independent body, along the lines that exist in most countries.
Despite the fact that the private media in Venezuela (overwhelmingly owned by two wealthy families) not only supported but was crucial to helping organise a military coup that briefly overthrew the elected Chavez government in 2002, no media outlet has been shut down and the private media continues to run a constant campaign criticising the government.
Responding to the allegations, vice-president Jose Vincent Rangel claimed that the IAPA "is an organisation totally discredited by its silence during true aggressions against liberty which have served all the dictators of Latin America". He said that over the decades "they kept silent while shameful things happened against freedom of expression such as the murder of journalists and the closing down of newspapers and other means of communication".
According to Venezuelanalysis.com, during the 2002 military coup, the IAPA remained silent when the regime established by the coup — in power for just 48 hours — carried out vicious state repression against community media and also took the state-run TV station off air. One IAPA member in Venezuela, the pro-opposition El Universal, carried a front-page report hailing the coup, which not only removed Chavez from power but also dissolved the constitution, the Supreme Court and the National Assembly, with the headline "A Step Forward", while the IAPA itself released a statement that was "broadly supportive" of the regime established by the coup.
This support for a coup that installed a new regime headed by the head of Venezuela's main business federation to power, which during its brief reign dissolved the pro-poor laws introduced by Chavez, helps explains why Rangel, in rejecting the IAPA's criticisms, referred to the organisation as "a latrine", claiming that "it represents the dirtier and darker interests of the world media business".
The IAPA annual meeting coincided with fresh slurs against the Chavez government by US televangelist and Republican Pat Robertson. Robertson caused outrage both inside and outside the US in August when, on his weekly television program viewed by more than 1 million people, he urged the US government to assassinate Chavez. The Bush administration ignored calls from Venezuela to condemn the comments. Robertson later retracted his call for the assassination of Chavez, suggesting that he could be kidnapped instead.
Venezuelanalysis.com reported on October 10 that the previous night Robertson had claimed on CNN's Late Edition that Chavez, who he accused of establishing a "Marxist dictatorship", had given US$1.2 million to Osama Bin Laden immediately following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Robertson refused to reveal the source of his allegations and also claimed that the US could face a nuclear attack from Venezuela.
Venezuelan officials rejected the allegations as ridiculous and irrational. Rangel suggested that Robertson be "submitted to a team of psychiatrists". Yet Rangel pointed out that Robertson's allegations were dangerous because of his close ties to the White House.
Venezuelan ambassador to the US Bernardo Alvarez pointed out that the allegation that Venezuela had provided funds to Bin Laden had been decisively disproved by a US court. The money the accusation is based on was actually allocated to Afghan refugees via the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Venezuela has no nuclear weapons.
From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, October 26, 2005.
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