Slashdot Mirror
Venezuela's Last Opposition TV Owner Arrested
WrongSizeGlass writes "AP is reporting the owner of Venezuela's only remaining TV channel that takes a critical line against President Hugo Chavez was arrested Thursday. 'Guillermo Zuloaga, owner of Globovision, was arrested on a warrant for remarks that were deemed "offensive" to the president,' Attorney General Luisa Ortega said. This comes on the heels of last week's story titled Venezuela's Chavez To Limit Internet Freedom."
As bad as things were in Venezuela before this, now they've gotten much, much worse. Any chance of convincing some gray/black hats to strike a blow for decency and sanity, and hack Chavez's websites to portray him as a transvestigial equinophiliac paedo-cannibal?
anything that will make the common people laugh at him, and thereby undermine his social standing from within is just about the only hope Venezuela has left
Here's to hot beer, cold women, and Glaswegian kisses for all.
When I first read this, I imagined them breaking down someones front door because the owned a TV and may watched a program critical of Hugo Chavez.
I've got no beef with socialism in general, but what Chavez is doing isn't socialism. I'm perpetually annoyed by socialism supporters like Sean Penn who defend Chavez, claiming he is not a dictator. I'm sorry, but taking over the media, rewriting the constitution to remove term limits so he can stay in power indefinitely and possibly attempting to assassinate the democratically elected president of a neighboring country (see the first link) are not the actions of a democratic leader. Combined with the allegations of vote fraud and voter suppression in opposition neighborhoods, the man has crossed that line that divides "pompous but legitimate ruler" from "dictator in all but name."
$_ = "wftedskaebjgdpjgidbsmnjgcdwatb"; tr/a-z/oh, turtleneck Phrase Jar!/; print
It disturbs me greatly that a man like this, and Fidel Castro regularly have been praising the direction our country is heading. I hope this TV owner finds a way to get out of this.
Control the information.
You can own the media markets outright (Italy's Berlusconi), or, as Chavez and countless others before him did, simply arrest them.
Fat lotta good the UN does on either account...
"We are Microsoft. You shall be assimilated. Competition is futile."
I've been posting lots of melodramatic stuff online about Obama being a usurper and how he's going to throw conservatives in gulags, but now I see how good I've actually got it. Wow.
He WOULD be successful in portraying something like that as a CIA attack. However, I believe being portrayed as a cross-dressing, child-eating, donkey-fucker would cause enough cognitive dissonance amongst the people of Venezuela that they'd be able to start looking at him objectively rather than subjectively.
You're also right that the Venezuelans are the only ones that can do something about him. When half the country supports him because he champions the poor at the cost of all else (because the Venezuelan elite betrayed the trust of the people over all), then that is an internal matter.
be nice to see that image though... maybe it could become the new goatse meme
Here's to hot beer, cold women, and Glaswegian kisses for all.
Look if Chavez can jail opponents arbitrarily, then they should be able to kill Chavez any time they feel like it. That's only fair when law means only what the strong want it to mean.
It follows the classic Slashdot 3 Step Plan:
1. Acquire US corporation with overseas branches (Bahamas, anyone).
2. Transfer funds to US, make contributions, buy political advertising, etc.
3. Profit! In this case profit equals changing US behavior.
This is such a new ruling that the practical limits have not been tested in court. Even so, current law makes it difficult to find out who is really behind much existing political funding. And if you are willing to lie, it is even easier.
And if you don't think that money buys political influence, just look at the record breaking spending in the California governs race: http://www.kcbs.com/localnews/Spending-Soars-in-CA-Governor-s-Race/6639828
This is bad enough already. Imagine how i will be with foreign interests footing the bills...
Why is Snark Required?
Actually, the venezuelan government has been trying to close Globovision for a while now, and one of the biggest problems is that they have NEVER advocated any kind of violence against the government, be it the president or anyone else. It would cost too much international support for them to close another oposition TV station without a good reason.
The other two big independent TV stations have been scared off enough that they don't dare play anything political. The only other one is VTV, the government's channel (and I don't mean Bush' Fox, I mean wholly owned by the government). They do play show like "La Hojilla" (The razor blade) that openly advocated a few times killing oposition as a legitimate means of defending "the revolution".
Not to mention Chavez himself sometimes applauding relatively violent acts in his defense.
Now, I won't say that Globovision is fair and balanced, but as far as I can tell they never outright lied about anything. I understand Fox news to be more radical and distorting than Globovision and yet I don't see the Fox owners being hounded for years and finally arrested like Zuloaga.
FWIW, it seems Zuloaga was released after appearing in court, with a prohibition against leaving the country. We'll see whether he'll fold and close Globovision or be thrown in jail on trumped up charges.
Time to claw things back and give Chavez a chance to reform the country, like a majority of the population say they want.
Disclaimer on my stance on the government: Chavez has been in power for 10 years. He's changed the constitution multiple times, tried out different reforms all while oil was at an all time high and money was flowing into the country like crazy. He's had a BIG chance to reform the country and It's all been a failure. Lately all he's doing helps the government more than the people.
Hell, we even have rolling blackouts now, when we used to export electricity. This is a situation that was predicted over a year ago, but 10 years of ignoring the power infrastructure have left its mark, and yet he blames it all on el niño and the previous governments.
If you want change, don't prop up the same old government. If you're a socialist, elect a different socialist president. If you're a capitalist, same thing. There's no reason to maintain Chavez in power for another 50 years.
Talking smack about the USA is only going to get him so far as the standard of living declines. Then he's got to attack his neighbors (even more). That's if he lives . . .
These TV station smart-asses have been openly advocating for Chavez to be assassinated. I'm sure if some 'independent' TV station started calling for President Obama's assassination, there would be some arrests over that too.
The problem is that Chavez is trying to implement some real social reforms, but the capitalists would very much prefer that not to happen. One of their weapons in the battle is these 'independent' TV stations, that are about as independent as Fox News.
Good riddance I say. There are enough far-right freak-shows with access to mass media already. Time to claw things back and give Chavez a chance to reform the country, like a majority of the population say they want.
You mean the way that the people who called for George W. Bush's assassination were arrested? Oh that's right, they weren't. Of course that was different because Bush was a bad guy.
You appear to be saying that it is ok for Chavez to arrest these guys because you don't like what they were saying.
The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
If you have the balls to make wild claims, you better have a pair to prove them.
You have the freedom to accuse the government of killing people, but you have the duty to present the proof. Nowhere in the world (including the USA) you can accuse anybody of mass killing people without presenting any proof and come out clean. And when the accuser is the owner of a major TV channel it's worse.
Next, we'll see slashdot out-crying the incarceration of killers because they voted against Chavez.
Life isn't like a box of chocolates. It's more like a jar of jalapenos. What you do today, might burn your ass tomorrow.
The Venezuelan president has a right a legal defense on unwarranted attacks on his reputation - if he is defamed then he can take the matter to court. This doesn't make him a dictator.
Zuloaga has a defense to the charges against him: if he can prove his statements were true, then he can get off. But if his allegations about Chavez are in fact just inflammatory lies, then he's in some serious legal shit.
Nope. One of his moves a few years ago was to set up the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) which absorbed a bunch of parties that supported him at one time and he's campaigned for people to see this as the only socialist party in existence. Of course he controls it and it would only propose him for president. Anyone leading another party is politically a nobody
There are other socialist politicians. Real socialists, even some that have been fighting for change for decades and are appalled at what Chavez is doing now. One of them said lately that Chavez is not a socialist but a communist, for example. There are, of course, people who were with Chavez but have fallen out of favor and might want to set themselves up as new socialists leaders, but without the PSUV's backing they are not getting anywhere.
So, no.
A lot of people love their dear leader and his personality more than the ideology. And a lot of people like socialism, but believe socialism is whatever Chavez says, or that letting the opposition get any foothold will make them lose "all they've fought for". Others think Chavez simply can do no wrong, whatever he does. All of them still insist on calling a 10 year old entrenched government "the revolution" and anyone who doesn't like whatever Chavez says is "against the process" (and some of them say it with a "they deserve death" attitude)
Bringing up that they could back another better socialist is a good way to make them face the fact that they love him more than the process or the ideology.
As to the Putin scenario, he's not going to do that. Why would he back a constitutional reform whose only point was to allow him to run again in the next presidential elections?
He also managed to get the last opposition guy to run against him to flee the country, so there's no credible person to run against him from the opposition anyway. But that's a story for another post.
Or, someone could hire this midget to imitate him, and post it all over the intertubes. Let's see Chávez portray /that/ as a CIA attack!
Yo soy el pequeño Hugo Chávez. Me encanta el socialismo!
Yes, it's completely legal in the US. For better or worse, the media can legally lie.
Moreover, Americans have a great history of accusing presidents of mass murder with no factual basis whatsoever, yet I've never heard of any one of them being arrested for speaking their views.
First, WTH is this doing in /. ? The OWNER of a tv STATION gets arrested boarding his plane when trying to leave the country, when a court summoned him to back up his criminal claims against the president (He said Chavez ordered the killing of protesters), all of this in a foreign country. And it somehow becomes... YOUR rights ONLINE? What has someone from /. anything to do with this? Do we all cry if the owner of Fox News (Rupert Murdoch) gets sued by Democrats for libel? How is this relevant to /. ???
70% of the comments are bullshit. Most comments have an obvious anti-Chavez bias, completely full of lies. Anyone can visit the country and immediately discover the truth. This is psycho-warfare. Believe all my lies of this country, "but don't go there!, it's dangerous!, just trust everything i say"...
Say, does /. reports when a community station gets closed? By reading these comments, one would think there is no "dissident" opinion allowed in Venezuela. I dare you come here and not find anti-chavez opinion in the media, 95% of it in private hands, 80% against Chavez. Yet, Chavez keep winning elections, because the people want him despite what media corporate lords want.
There is even someone asking if its possible for people to own a satellite dish... Are you on drugs? Subscription TV has higher penetration than Internet here, above 25% (lame, i know). You can watch all the "fine" examples of American TV, including Fox News, CNN, ABC, and the rest of your "unbiased" news corporations. We don't have a Great Firewall, and we don't censor news or opinion, but people is accountable of what they say. Even that other channel which supposedly was closed, is not, they just lost the license for public broadcast, but are doing just fine in cable and satellite, 24h attacking the government.
This guy Zuloaga, who owns another channel, will likely lose his license in a few years. That doesn't mean much as it only covers 3 cities using public airwaves. Most of its target audience are wealthy people with subscription based tv in their home who won't miss a thing. There are still many other TV stations, almost all radio and a majority of newspapers and magazines all against the government, yet the people won't budge.
Their biggest mistake is believing their own lies, thinking everyone hates Chavez just like they do, then banging their heads against the wall everytime they keep losing elections, trying to find excuses even if the whole world comes to watch the process or 100% of the voting machines get audited right after the election closes. So they resort to the conclusion the majority is stupid for choosing Chavez and they, the "well prepared and educated", need to seize power by any means, just like Honduras and oppress anyone else.
Democracy, or the power of majority over minority, is an obstacle for the opposition, who was used to rule the country to their whim for decades, and who conveniently forget it was their failure which caused Chavez to rise in the first place. Socialism? Communism? There isn't anything of the sort in Venezuela. There is a declared INTENTION towards Socialism, but thats about it. We can't even claim a mixed-economy, as the majority of production is still in private hands, but at least it's not 100% private anymore and a decade of neo-liberalism is being reverted slowly.
Of course media corporate lords don't like these community radio/tv things, but they won't tell you that. When they were in power, such thing was "pirate" and heavily repressed. How dare the poor organize and enter their turf they spent so many years to monopolize? But of course you don't hear that, its all Chavez this, Chavez, that. Keep living in dreams, the people are awake.
Artix
Your Linux, your init.
Since last week's story titled "Venezuela's Chavez To Limit Internet Freedom." was really only about taking down a single webpage that demanded Chavez to be killed for years I can only guess this guy was promoting the same or similar things on TV. I would assume the same takedown is possible in most number countries using hate speech, promotion of criminal acts or libel laws.
No no no, it's not independent. It's in the pockets of the Yankee capitalist running-dogs.
Closing it down is a last resort to prevent the brotherly people being tricked by evil globalist propaganda into turning against the glorious first citizen. It's only being done for their benefit.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."