Venezuelan journalist Clara Fernandez has been killed in a shooting in Valencia. She was allegedly caught in crossfire in a fight between two rival gangs. The details relating to her death are as yet unclear. The Venezuelan National Journalism Guild is pressing for the state authorities to investigate.
Journalist Gustavo Azócar is being prosecuted again on the charge of libelling an army officer in 2004. This comes as part of a series of actions which have been brought against him, and has provoked accusations of judicial harassment. The allegation relates to an article which Azócar wrote as a correspondent for El Universal. The story concerned purported trafficking in identity papers by the National Office for Identification and Foreigners. Azócar has repeatedly invited the soldier to use his guaranteed right of reply. He indicated that he would do so when he received permission from the defence ministry, which has still not been granted.
Yesterday (18 August) El Nacional, a leading Venezuelan newspaper ran a front page with “censored” written across it. The move was a response to a Caracas court ruling that has effectively banned newspapers from publishing images of violence or bloody scenes. El Nacional was found guilty of publishing pictures which may have been harmful to children after it ran a photo showed dead bodies at a morgue. The anti-Chavez publication was told that it may be fined up to two per cent of its revenue for its actions. The newspaper’s editor has accused the government of trying to cover up violent crime in run-up to next month’s election.
Last week’s news that Hugo Chávez has once again broken ties with Colombia was hardly a shock.
The break follows Colombia providing an Organisation of American States (OAS) meeting in Washington with video, audio and photographic evidence that Venezuela is harbouring members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Farc and the National Liberation Army (ELN).
Colombia’s ambassador to the OAS, Luis Alfonso Hoyos, went further alleging that the paramiltaries “eat fried pork and get fat in order to rest before launching attacks in Colombia”. Chavez denies the charges and certainly has his defenders, one being Oliver Stone, whose new film “South of the Border” has been criticised as a hagiography of South America’s Bolivarian leaders.
Another high profile fan is Diego Maradona, who was inexplicably present at the press conference where Chávez broke ties with Colombia.
The arrest of three Colombian journalists on 16 July in the Venezuelan town of El Nula seemed to many to be just another example of Latin America’s turbulent relationship with the media. Delve a little deeper, however, and there is much more to the story. The three Colombians were in El Nula on a tip off that the head of the ELN was in town. Whats more, having been detained for not having visa documentation (which they did not need under a border agreement between the two countries), they were released two days later, minus an audio tape and accusing their captors of ill treatment. All this in the same week that Venezuela was busy denying that there are terrorist camps in the country.
The story confirms that freedom of expression in Venezuela is under threat. Colombia, rated by Freedom House as only partly free and with a history of violence against journalists, is hardly without problems itself.
The Chávez government recently took control of 45.8 per cent of the staunchly anti-Chávez media broadcaster Globovision. The president of Globovision, Guillermo Zuloaga, won the 2010 Inter American Press Association (IAPA) Grand Prize for Press Freedom but has lived in exile in Florida since a warrant was issued for his arrest in June over financial irregularities.
Chávez is still undoubtedly loved by many; he survived a 2002 coup attempt after the public mobilised in his defence, despite misleading television reports accusing Chávez protestors of inciting violence. So why does he feel the need to clamp down on the press?