CRITICISM IS A DIRTY WORD

August Caribbean Memo 2013

Date: 01-Aug-2013

From: News Center Publications

 

Venezuela’s government apparently thinks so. When criticism comes, it seems willing to do anything to stop it.

Here are two recent examples.

First, Venezuela’s Supreme Court ordered opposition political leader Henrique Capriles pay a $1,698 fine.

Why?

He had challenged President Nicolas Maduro’s April 14^th narrow election victory over Capriles.  

The election was called following the March 5 death of former President Hugo Chavez.

Two, the government has frozen bank accounts and taken over property owned by Miguel Henrique Otero, editor of the South American country’s privately owned newspaper, El Nacional.       

Why?

The action, according to an Associated Press report, was part of a larger government investigation. It charged Otero’s friend and associate, former Caracas mayor Alfredo Pena, was allegedly corrupt.

In our opinion, Otero asks an obvious question.

Why should the government be critical of his newspaper when it can make its views known without challenge on seven official outlets, five television and two radio stations.

Besides that, Otero says the government uses dozens of Internet Web Pages to be critical of private media positions.

We talk about this conflict because we're interested in telling a story about the Caribbean, Latin America and even the United States.

We think we've done that in six historical-political novels. They can be viewed on our WebSite: natcarnes.com. We're currently working on a seventh.

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The Editors