Chavez TV Shutdown Sparks Condemnation Across Region (Update2)
By Alex Kennedy and Romina Nicaretta
June 1 (Bloomberg) -- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's shutdown of the country's most-watched television network has set off growing condemnation in Latin America and may derail his drive to become the region's leader.
Brazilian senators today debated a motion to ``condemn'' Chavez after he called lawmakers there ``parrots'' of the U.S. for criticizing his decision to close the broadcaster. Chavez last month branded Chile's legislature ``a bunch of fascists'' after the body passed a resolution objecting to his plans.
``I'm afraid that if we don't raise our voices to denounce this situation, we could become accomplices through omission,'' Chilean senator Jaime Naranjo, a member of President Michelle Bachelet's socialist party and head of the senate's human rights committee, said in a telephone interview today. ``As Chileans we know how important international solidarity is when a country starts to violate human rights.''
The regional recoil against Chavez's decision to close the government's most widely watched critic may undermine his efforts to establish Venezuela as Latin America's leader. Since taking office in 1999, Chavez has joined the Mercosur trade bloc, sold joint bonds with Argentina, created a regional bank to replace the International Monetary Fund and called on neighbors to reject trade agreements with the U.S.
``They must be pretty surprised because they're seeing those they thought of as allies taking a pretty critical position,'' said Francisco Rodriguez, a professor at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut and former head of Venezuela's congressional economic advisory office.
`Fascists Are Attacking'
Critics of Chavez's refusal to renew the license for Radio Caracas Television, known as RCTV, on May 27 include the European Parliament, the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and the Committee to Protect Journalists.
``There's no longer any doubt about his goals,'' Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based journalist advocacy group, said in a statement yesterday. ``RCTV's closure was just the prelude to the progressive disappearance of all the opposition press.''
Amnesty International, the Brazilian Senate and the Carter Center, which observed and endorsed Chavez's 2004 recall vote victory, also objected to the shutdown.
``The extreme right and the fascists are attacking Venezuela from the U.S., Europe and Brasilia,'' Chavez said in a televised speech yesterday. ``Nobody should be butting in here.''
The U.S. and Spain are calling on Chavez to allow the station to reopen, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said after meeting with Spanish Foreign Minister Miguel Angel Moratinos in Madrid to day.
Free Press
Chavez, in speeches before the shutdown, said the station lost its license because it backed an attempted coup against him in 2002 and broadcast violence-and-sex-laced programs. The station denies participating in the coup.
``Democracy in Venezuela is dying,'' Brazilian senator Eduardo Azeredo, 58, said in a telephone interview from Belo Horizonte. ``His comments are an assault on the free press and the Brazilian senate.''
Azeredo, of the Social Democracy Party, is one of 18 Brazilian lawmakers representing Brazil in the parliament of the Mercosur bloc. Chavez is finalizing Venezuela's membership in the bloc founded by Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil.
The parliament will discuss concerns about Venezuela at its next meeting on July 25, Azeredo said.
``Venezuela is trying to join the parliament and to be a member it must have a democratic regime,'' he said.
Argentine lawmaker Ricardo Jano, head of congress's Mercosur committee and also a member of the Mercosur parliament, said he has growing concerns about the country's internal situation, having been an advocate of Venezuelan membership.
`Puppy'
``Chavez has very seriously violated the right to freedom of expression,'' he said in a telephone interview.
Chavez, 52, has insulted foreign critics before. Over the last 18 months, he called Peruvian President Alan Garcia a ``thief'' and former Mexican President Vicente Fox a ``puppy of the empire.'' When Costa Rican President Oscar Arias said Chavez's policies were a ``negation of democracy,'' Chavez accused him of seeking an invitation to President George W. Bush's ranch.
Earlier this week, the government accused Globovision of seeking to incite Chavez's murder by showing images of the assassination attempt against Pope John Paul II in 1981 while playing Ruben Blades' song `This Doesn't End Here.'
The attorney general later summoned Globovision Director Alberto Federico Ravell and Leopoldo Castillo, the channel's most prominent journalist, for questioning next week.
Broader Strategy
``We're not going to change our editorial line. If we have to go to trial, we'll go to trial,'' Ravell said in an interview.
Chavez said he won't reverse his decision.
``It would be much easier for the Portuguese to retake their empire in Brazil than have the Venezuelan government return the broadcast license to an oligarch station,'' Chavez said last night.
The RCTV move is part of a broader strategy to quell dissent that includes forming a single government party and communal councils, funded by Chavez, that weaken local governments, considerably,'' said Patrick Esteruelas, an analyst with New York-based political risk advisers Eurasia Group.
``He's castrating free press in Venezuela,'' said Valter Pereira, a senator for the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party and member of the government's ruling coalition. ``Why should we sit back, cross our arms and watch him destroy democratic institutions?''
