Section 14

President Hugo Chávez has taken a further step towards turning Venezuela into a Soviet-style socialist republic with his decision not to renew Radio Caracas Television’s licence.

Much to the bane of the government, [RCTV] also features Miguel Angel Rodriguez, whose three-year-old program, “The Interview,” makes mincemeat of Chavez’s government every weekday morning. Sitting before a giant screen where Chavez’s speeches are replayed, Rodriguez and his guests, usually staunch foes of Chavez, dissect the president’s statements and declare his government anti-democratic and incompetent.

“Could we say to Venezuelans that a person of this sort, Hugo Chavez, is rising up against the liberty of Venezuelans?” Rodriguez asked a guest on a recent morning. “Is this constitutional reform, the enabling law and this giant step to consolidate 21st-century socialism a method of finding a legal way to install totalitarianism?”

Chávez is certainly leading Venezuela down the path to Cuban- or Soviet-style socialism and his closing down of media that disagree with him illustrates his totalitarian leanings. Chávez’s cheerleaders will often point out that he was democratically elected. They would do well to remember that democracy is there to support human freedom, not the other way round.

UPDATE 31/1/07: Chavez’ power is about to become total. The National Assembly is ready to pass a law allowing Chavez to rule by decree.

This entry was posted on Friday, January 19th, 2007 at 8:57 am and is filed under Dictatorship, Press Freedom, Television. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.