[NYTr] Despite CIA's Best Efforts, RCV Protests Lose Steam in Venezuela
ny...@olm.blythe-systems.com
[We're including just a few of the stories VIO summarizes below,
including one on a very tired old tactic favored by the CIA, especially
in Latin America: The "pots & pans" protest, which they apparently
trotted out in an effort to stoke protest of RCTV's non-renewal. -NYTr]
excerpted from VIO Venezuela Daily News Roundup - June 1, 2007.
Summary:
Calm has returned to the streets of Caracas following several days of
protests and clashes between police and those rallying against the
government's decision not to renew RCTV. The Associated Press reported
yesterday that one female university student was killed by hired gunmen
in the capital, but that the act had no connection to the woman's
involvement in protests surrounding the RCTV controversy. Reuters
reported yesterday that Interior Minister Pedro Carreno responded
immediately to the death, urging the public not to misinterpret the
unfortunate event, saying, "We are going to keep the country, its
citizens and its youth informed." Carreno also suggested that student
involvement in the pro-RCTV rallies has been encouraged by university
administrations aligned with the opposition, according to Bloomberg. A
march in support of the government's decision not to renew RCTV is
expected for Saturday, the New York Times notes in an article today
about Chavez's adherence to the decision.
Yesterday, the Atlanta-based Carter Center called for dialog between
the Chavez administration and members of the opposition involved in
protests against the non-renewal of RCTV's broadcasting license. The
Carter Center has joined other organizations is raising questions about
what the RCTV decision means for free speech in Venezuela, but has
avoided wholesale condemnations of the kind issued by Reporters Without
Borders. President Chavez stated yesterday that the RCTV decision is
an internal issue in which outside actors like foreign NGOs and
governments should not interfere. The Associated Press reports today
that Chavez stated his disapproval of harsh criticisms of Venezuela
that have come from Washington and its conservative allies abroad. In
particular, he responded to a motion by the Brazilian Senate yesterday
to ask Chavez to reopen RCTV.
[Victor Navasky, longtime editor of The Nation magazine and] a
delegation of the Committee to Protect Journalists to Caracas writes in
the Guardian Unlimited today that, though the CPJ has officially come
out against the RCTV non-renewal, "I still find it difficult to say
whether and when the non-renewal of a license become censorship."
Opposition voices should get equal airtime, but, the CPJ delegate
wonders, "where is it written that broadcasting licenses - even 20 year
concessions like the one RCTV enjoyed and perhaps abused - should be
automatically renewed?" An article about the opposition in the
Economist yesterday takes the opposite tack, condemning what it calls a
"crackdown" on the media. -VIO
***
The Guardian - June 1, 2007
http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/victor_navasky/2007/06/chavez_tv.html
Op-Ed:
ChC!vez TV:
Is Hugo ChC!vez's treatment of a popular TV channel the mark of an
dictator, or a genuine move towards giving power to the people of
Venezuela?
By Victor Navasky
Hugo ChC!vez strikes me as one of those people who says things out loud
to hear how they sound. This is ok for a television host, which he is
on his own weekly TV show, but it can cause problems for a president.
Over the past year, ChC!vez famously said of President Bush - the day
after Bush came to the UN - "The devil came here yesterday," helpfully
adding: "And it smells of sulphur still today." He later apologized.
Not long thereafter he described Jesus Christ as "the greatest
socialist in history," he ended a speech to the national assembly by
shouting "Socialism or death!" When US officials expressed concern
about recent Venezuelan political developments he gently advised: "Go
to hell, gringos! Go home!"
And in December of last year when he announced in the course of his
annual speech to the National Armed Forces (FAN) his intention not to
renew the broadcast license of the Caracas-based TV Network Radio
Caracas Television, popularly known as RCTV, whose concession would
expire the following May, he colorfully elaborated: "They better go
packing". "Get ready," he admonished, "start turning the equipment
off." Venezuela, he said lest he be misunderstood, would not tolerate
media "at the service of coup-plotting against the people, against the
nation, against the national independence and against the dignity of
the republic."
Charges and counter-charges quickly erupted. Censorship, said his
critics, citing this as merely the latest move by the would-be
caudillo. Non-renewal of a license is not censorship said his
supporters. On the government's side, Venezuela's minister of
communication and information, William Lara, cited the many laws RCTV
had broken, not least the showing of "pornography" (erotically charged
soap opera) during children's TV-watching hours, not to mention
participation in the 2002 anti-ChC!vez coup.
On May 27 ChC!vez made good on his pledge. He declined to renew the
license and within seconds of the screens going blank, the insignia of
a new state-sponsored broadcaster, TVES, appeared. Protesting opponents
and celebrating supporters took to the streets. And after observing
that some broadcasters (Globovision) and newspapers were conspiring to
spark unrest, ChC!vez ominously warned that that they should not be
inciting violence by "manipulating" public sentiment and threatened to
"put them down if they don't stop."
On the surface, the RCTV "shut down" (as the US conservative TV
channel, Fox News calls it) appears like a Castrovian giant step on the
road to censorship. But there is more than one road to what ChC!vez
likes to term, "21st century socialism." And based on my experience as
a member of a January 2007 Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ)
mission to Caracas, I prefer to believe that it would be a mistake to
ignore what may be a Sherwoodian forest for the trees.
Yes, under ChC!vez the national assembly has increased penalties for
defamation and slander. Yes, he persuaded the legislature to give him
the power to rule by decree (for 18 months), yes he has moved to
consolidate the parties of the left into one, and yes he has taken
steps to nationalise various industries.
But at the same time he insists that his goal is to empower the people,
that his missions, decrees, nationalisations - which remind me of
nothing so much as hostile takeovers always with a more-than-fair
negotiating price - and non-renewals are all meant to guarantee
bottom-up democracy, and the people's access to and ownership of the
various modes of communication.
I know, I know. Although my fellow CPJ delegates were too polite to say
so, even they consider me naive, especially in the context of
Venezuela's problematic "law of social responsibility in radio and
television" which, for example, bars the broadcasting of messages that
are "contrary to the security of the nation." But while ChC!vez never
hesitates to attack members of the press by name, and his
administration harasses them with defamation suits which are never
consummated, unlike Castro's Cuba where dissent is often the shortest
route to prison, nobody is put in prison and dissent seems as
omnipresent as the arepas Venezuelans seem to consume with breakfast,
lunch and dinner. And besides, where is it written that broadcasting
licenses - even 20 year concessions like the one RCTV enjoyed and
perhaps abused - should be automatically renewed?
The CPJ delegation ended up condemning the lack of transparency and due
process in the RCTV case, although I still find it difficult to say
whether and when the non-renewal of a license become censorship. In the
US, Fox news had no trouble reporting that ChC!vez "shut down" the
station, and the only question they raised, under the banner of
"Thousands marching for free speech in Venezuela," was to ask a former
assistant secretary of state for Latin America under Ronald Reagan:
"Will the poor people revolt and throw him out?" The last time I
looked, ChC!vez was re-elected by a clear majority of more than 60%,
most of them poor.
In the past, ChC!vez and his cohort have talked much of stations owned
by cooperatives, by communities, by public- private partnerships.
Speaking for myself, if what ChC!vez means by "socialism in the 21st
century" (a phrase dismissed by his critics as empty rhetoric), in fact
means replacing media conglomerates with such creative coalitions, then
I'm interested. I have no idea whether RCTV 's replacement, TVES, will
be in the brook-no-dissent tradition of Castro and of East European
ministries of culture, or closer to the US's own Public Broadcasting
System or even the BBC. If Chavez is smart, he will see to it that
contrary voices get equal time, and with luck they will be as
provocative, occasionally wrong-headed, off-beat, real and incendiary
as his own.
***
The Financial Times - June 1, 2007
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/959d3d7a-0fdc-11dc-a66f-000b5df10621.html
Pot and pan protest over ChC!vez's TV clampdown
By Benedict Mander
A cacophony of clanging pots and pans has been ringing through the
balmy night air in middle-class neighbourhoods of Caracas since the
weekend, as residents lean out of windows to protest against the end of
their favourite television channel.
During the day, student groups have marched through the streets of the
capital in defence of freedom of expression, in the most prolonged
period of unrest in Venezuela since demonstrations in March 2004
demanding a recall referendum.
The protests were triggered by President Hugo ChC!vez's refusal to renew
the licence of RCTV, Venezuela's oldest and most popular television
channel, leading to occasional clashes between protesters throwing
bottles and stones and police firing rubber bullets and tear gas. So
far more than 180 protesters have been arrested and a former
presidential candidate, Manuel Rosales, has called for their release,
accusing the government of attempting to establish a "media hegemony".
He also attacked Mr ChC!vez's threats this week against Globovision, the
only remaining television channel that is strongly critical of the
government after RCTV's licence expired on Sunday.
"I recommend that [Globovision] takes a tranquilliser, that they slow
down, because if not, I'm going to slow them down," said Mr ChC!vez,
describing the 24-hour news channel as "enemies of the homeland" in a
speech that all channels were obliged to broadcast.
"A new destabilisation plan is under way," he said, urging supporters
to be "on guard". Willian Lara, the communications minister, asked
prosecutors to open a case against Globovision for inciting Mr ChC!vez's
assassination by broadcasting images of the attempted murder of Pope
John Paul II in 1981, accompanied by the chorus of a popular salsa
song, ThisDoes Not Stop Here. It was part of a retrospective of news
events covered by RCTV during its 53 years on air.
"We can't take something so absurd seriously," said Maria Fernanda
Flores, the vice-president of Globo-vision.
"We are going to continue doing what we have done for our 13 years on
the air as independent journalists. If they want us to engage in
self-censorship, let them shut us down. We are not doing anything
illegal," she said.
Diverse organisations have criticised Mr ChC!vez's treatment of the
media, including the European Union, the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights, various members of the USCongress, the Chilean Senate,
Reporters without Borders and Human Rights Watch.
But Alex Main, a government adviser, said: "People should really be
asking themselves whether anygovernment in the world would agree to
renew the licence of a television network that has been as intensely
active in various campaigns to topple the country's constitutional
government through anti-democratic means."
Mr ChC!vez accuses RCTV of involvement in a 2002 coup that briefly
removed him from power.
Independent organisations such as the Committee to Protect Journalists
and Amnesty International agree that RCTV's reporting of coup was
biased.
Further, the government points out that although RCTV is no longer able
broadcast on a VHF frequency - and the Supreme Court has ruled that
Teves, the "public service" channel replacing RCTV, may take over its
transmitters, antennae and other equipment - it is free to broadcast on
cable and satellite.
***
Bloomberg - May 31, 2007
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aczpVb8U3rg4&refer=latin_america
Venezuela's Carreno Says Universities Fuel Protests
By Guillermo Parra-Bernal and Alex Kennedy
Venezuelan Interior and Justice Minister Pedro Carreno alleged that the
country's universities are encouraging students to demonstrate against
President Hugo Chavez's shutdown of the most-watched television station.
Deans of private universities ``are sending kids to protest,'' Carreno
said. ``We won't permit violence. The state isn't there to repress but
to guarantee peace.''
Nationwide demonstrations against the May 27 shutdown of Radio Caracas
Television, most of which were led by university students, are the
biggest public outcry since March 2004, when demonstrators demanded a
recall vote on Chavez.
Supporters of Chavez accused opposition parties of organizing the
protests in a bid to overthrow Chavez. Carreno said private
universities, concerned about Chavez's plan to create 24 new state
universities, are encouraging the protests.
Demonstrations throughout the country eased today. Nearly all the 200
people detained since May 26 have been released, Carreno said.
At last 60 people have been injured since the start of the protests,
according to unofficial data collected from El Nacional and El
Universal newspapers. The government hasn't released figures.
``There's no rich versus poor division among students in the march,''
said Ana Corrales, 24, a student at state-run Central University of
Venezuela. ``It's the government that wants to manipulate public
opinion, not the deans, not our parents and not the political
opposition.''
`Rich Kids'
Andreina Gomez Guevara, a 24-year-old private university student was
shot and killed at a Caracas gas station on her way to a march this
morning, Carreno said. The killing was unrelated to the protests and
two people have been detained in connection with the murder, Carreno
said during a news conference.
``We're not going to allow crying entertainers and rich kids to
destabilize us,'' Caracas Metropolitan Mayor Juan Barreto said in a
statement on the Web site of the mayor's office. Barreto is a supporter
of Chavez's government.
Student leaders such as Jon Goicoechea told reporters yesterday in
Caracas they will extend the protests and support the channel, known as
RCTV.
The Central University's board, composed of 40 members including
professors, students and government officials, unanimously approved a
protest march for June 5, said Lia Tovar, secretary-general of the
board. Protests by the student movement are likely to gain momentum in
coming days, she said.
``Their protesting is just a reflection of the concern that parents
feel about the future of this country,'' Tovar said. ``It's a valid
concern.''
*
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