Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez took another step aimed at consolidating his authoritarian choke hold on Venezuela by forcing cable providers to dump Radio Caracas Television (RCTV) from their broadcasting lineups. The popular, anti- Chavez channel first ran afoul of the populist leader for its critical programming back in 2007. At the time the Chavez government refused to renew its license to broadcast over open airwaves. It disappeared from the cable channels on January 24.
Government officials cited violations by RCTV such as failure to broadcast Chavez endless diatribes, airing soap operas during children’s hour, and other egregious infractions. This censorship by restrictive regulation is the favored tool of the Chavez regime as it accelerates throttling of individual rights and liberties.
Shutting down a TV station is hardly his only problem. On Saturday, January 23, large demonstrations for and against Chavez took to the streets of Caracas.
It is easy to see easy to see why the great leader is in trouble. Increasing polarization is the result of mounting problems occasioned by Chavez’s disastrous “Socialism of the 21st Century” that include galloping inflation, recurring power outages, and periodic food shortages. Chavez has resorted to increasingly restrictive measures ranging from currency devaluation to the nationalization of retail stores to shore up his struggling oil-based economy. He has driven his nation’s economy to the bottom of the barrel. The Heritage Foundation and Wall Street Journal 2010 Index of Economic Freedom released last week handed Venezuela’s statist economy a ranking of 174th out of 179 rated economies, placing it on par with Burma, Cuba, North Korea and Zimbabwe.
Amigos of a feather flock together. The playbook is the same for all who have seized power, control the information points and close the ranks. Watch out America when free speech is throttled. The ends will never justify the means regarding censorship.
If he feels the entire country is with him why is he afraid of free press? the only way for him to remain in power is by force, intimidation etc. The era of dictatorship is over, freedom and peace is now, I feel so sorry for the people of Venezuela and their suffering………
Chavez is not a great leader. Is there a way some organization can charge him on human rights violations? He is driving that country down in the ground. My heart goes out for the Venezuelans who are living in this tyrany and misery.
The Obama administration has already made numerous comments regarding their version of free speech. And typically the administration is for shutting down the voice of the opposition such as Fox and all its commentators, Rush and even people in the press, such as the WSJ editorial page. When government seeks to restrict free speech or works in secret it only shows that the work would not bear the scrutiny of an enlightened people. In the Obama administration there are more czar's and secret meetings and letters than we have seen in previous administrations. This does not bode well for our future. Obama, Pelosi, Reid and Clinton all like Hugo and show him a great deal of respect. As we all know, we are judge by the company we keep..
When Bush was president, this lunatic was celebrated by the mainstream media every time he bashed Bush. Anybody remember Chavez burning incense at the UN during a speech declaring that Bush was the devil? Now, you hardly hear about him. Those of us who have been paying attention see some alarming similarities with how the Obama administration does business compared to Chavez. Singling out Fox news and declaring it not to be a "legitimate news organization" was an outrageous move…since when does the government of the USA decide what is news? I missed that section of the constitution.
David, Concord, CA sum it up just fine…And many of the comments are what I am thinking and feeling…I am glad that the America people are waking up to this socialization of America. I love my freedom and so should every America, God Bless America and the people should be putting God first.
what the big deal we destroyed al jazeera tv station, and honduras coup is doing the same.
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poor hugo. can't accept, stand or speak the truth, so why would this weak little man let anyone else? well? guess we have to humor the weak as much as we can without falling into it…bet he puts his pants on the same as everyone else?
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