Venezuela will pull the plug on 29 more radio stations, a top official in Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s government said on Saturday, just weeks after dozens of other outlets were closed in a media clampdown.
Infrastructure Minister Diosdado Cabello closed 34 radio stations in July, saying the government was “democratizing” media ownership. Critics say the move limits freedom of expression and has taken critical voices off the airwaves.
The powerful Chavez ally has threatened to close more than 100 stations in total, part of a long-term campaign against private media that the government says are biased against Chavez’s government.
“Another 29 will be gone before long,” he told thousands of Chavez supporters at a political rally, without giving details which stations would be closed or when.
Cabello also said he was launching a new legal case against Globovision, the country’s most prominent anti-government television network, accusing it of inciting a coup against Chavez.
Text messages circulated last week in Venezuela saying a coup against Chavez was imminent. Other messages circulated among Chavez supporters calling for them to be on the alert.
“They [Globovision] aired a tape supposedly with telephone messages calling for a coup d’etat,” said Cabello, a member of Chavez’s inner circle who took part in the president’s first bid for office — a violent and abortive coup in 1992.
Meanwhile, in a sign of rising internal tensions, government and opposition supporters have taken to the streets of Caracas following worldwide protests against Chavez.
Leaders of the “Democratic Alternative,” a coalition of opposition groups, headed a large demonstration on Saturday against a new education law.
Opponents say the law contains provisions intended to indoctrinate students and convert them into supporters of Chavez’s policies.
In recent weeks police have arrested at least 11 people demonstrating against the measure at various protests, further angering Chavez opponents.
“If you want peace, open the paths to dialogue,” Caracas Mayor Antonio Ledezma urged Chavez at the rally.
Ledezma, a leading opposition figure, appealed to the president “to end the persecution of mayors and governors” that oppose the government.
Chavez supporters, led by several Cabinet ministers, took to the streets in a different part of the Venezuelan capital to support the president’s policies and denounce “imperialism.”
They also rallied against a deal allowing US forces to operate anti-drug operations from military bases in neighboring Colombia.
Socialist Party leader Robert Serra said the demonstrators were also marching in defense of Chavez’s opponents.
“If the US intends to invade Venezuela they will not ask who is a Chavista and who isn’t,” Serra said.
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