Chavez arrests last opposition media chief
Hugo Chavez has tightened control over the Venezuelan media with the arrest of Guillermo Zuloaga in an airport today. Zuloaga is the owner of Globovision, the only remaining anti-Chavez channel operating since RCTV was booted from Venezuelan airwaves in 2007. The crime of Zuloaga? He made remarks “offensive to the President” when he said that Chavez was suppressing free speech at an inter-Caribbean press meeting recently. I guess this pretty much proves those remarks correct.
These aren’t the only arrests made in recent days. Opposition politicians Wilmer Azuaje and Oswaldo Alvarez Paz have also both been detained, Azuaje for an unspecified crime and Alvarez Paz for “conspiracy” and “spreading false information” after he remarked that Venezuela has become a haven for drug traffickers on a Globovision interview.
There can be no more denial that Hugo Chavez is a jack-booted thug dictator who cares only for his own power. His stated willingness to jump into the recent crisis in Honduras with military force shows that if he continues to consolidate his power, he will become a greater threat to the stability of South America.
I wonder what Sean Penn has to say about this? After all, Penn is the one who wrote an impassioned defense in Salon of Chavez reminiscent more of a lovesick admirer than a rational observer of reality. He might actually agree with Chavez after saying that journalists who call him a dictator should be jailed:
Every day, this elected leader is called a dictator here, and we just accept it, and accept it. And this is mainstream media. There should be a bar by which one goes to prison for these kinds of lies.
Well, Mr. Penn, I suppose your wishes have been granted. I guess I’m safe since I’m not a journalist, but I wonder if Sean Penn wouldn’t mind to see me jailed anyway. And if I lived in Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela, there’s little doubt that they’d come for me eventually. Anyone who continues to support this man is insane – and Hollywood apparently has a few types who can supply enough detachment from reality to do so.
Cross-posted at Wellsy’s World
12 Responses to “Chavez arrests last opposition media chief”
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I bet Danny Glover, Sean Penn, and Kevin Spacey are so proud of their hero.
“He's so misunderstood”.
Chávez Critic Is Arrested, Then Freed, in Venezuela
Sounds a lot like what we do in this country, we arrest people, accuse them of some crime and release them with or without bail to await trial…
All of of 50 of our governors must be dictators…
I see you are off your meds again DQ.
Please provide the list of media figures and owners arrested in the US for criticizing the government, or for remarks “offensive to the President”.
Also the list of opposition politicians detained for treason by either side.
And if what you say is true, well, man, are YOU screwed when the Republicans come back into power. You obviously are destined for the deepest dungeon they have.
“Attorney General Luisa Ortega said that Mr. Zuloaga had been arrested in connection with comments he made this month at an Inter American Press Association meeting in Aruba that were considered false and “offensive” to Mr. Chávez.”
Arrested for offensive remarks….sounds a lot like what goes on in Russia.
I believe that you live in Germany, why don't you find out what would happen to any public figure who went on TV and praised the NAZI Regime…
Or you could ask Ann Coulter how restrictive speech is in Canada.
Very few countries have the equivalent of the First Amendment, and despite that they manage to be Democracies…
In a real Dictatorship, Mr. Zuloaga would not have been arrested, he would have been disappeared, after a few days of Torture his body would have been tossed out of a Helicopter into the Atlantic to feed the sharks… If you doubt me ask the Argentinians how the US backed Junta got rid of troublemakers in the mid to late 70's, or you can always ask the Chileans how Pinochet took care of people who did not approve of his regime…
WOW! Now it all makes sense.
DQ is Sean Penn's online avatar.
I 'd rater be Sean Penn's avatar than being Rush Limbaugh's… or is it Micheal Savage's? Which of these two's avatar are you again?
It absolutely amazes me that anyone would listen to what Sean Penn or Danny Glover said anytime about anything political. They are celebrities famous for other fields, not policy
Of course, I feel the same about Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Chris Matthews, Bill O`Reilly, Keith Obermann, Rachel Maddow, Ann Coulter, and a host of other overpaid under achievers pretending to be journalists.
Surely you can understand why I keep thinking that your posts are meant in jest, because you've just posted a terrific parody of reflexive “moral equivalence” comments. If you're really serious, maybe you'll give some consideration to what a former member of the Carter administration has to say about Hugo Chavez's approach to media relations:
“It certainly appears as if it's one more step toward asserting authoritarian control over the country by intimidating the media,” said Robert Pastor, who was National Security adviser for Latin America under President Jimmy Carter in the late 1970s.
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/05/2…
Neither. Michelle Malkin.
Baby Huey! You know how to apply your country's Fairness Doctrine.