Globovision-less evenings, information-less TV

I am back in San Felipe after a few days in Caracas, when we learned the end of Globovision. And thus I had to face my first evening without Leopoldo Castillo, a.k.a. El Ciudadano. It is not that I was a slave of that show, never watching it when I am away from home, but in San Felipe it was part of my routine, the essential routine considering that I got ideas for many a post by listening to the discussions of the talk show.

Exit Globovision

I was at a small social gathering when through twitter we learned that Leopoldo Castillo, the anchor for 12 years of Alo Ciudadano, was quitting. Thus ended the party. Thus died the last independent talk show on Venezuelan TV, and I dare say Globovision. As of tonight there is no TV network in Venezuela that has a critical view of the regime: all are either outright propaganda or neutered journalism that passes as little as possible unfavorable news for the regime. If any. Now, to get a more complete view of the news in Venezuela, the real news, the real problems, you need to read more than one newspaper, you need to scour through Internet, and if you are lucky you live in a town that has still some semi independent radio stations (independent radio stations seem to be rare these days, and only in major centers). But TV is out.

"según el" y otras formas de minimizar la cruda realidad venezolana

Esta semana leí y oí cosas que me preocuparon mucho, cosas que indican una cierta resignación hacia el chantaje chavista de la sociedad, el "tatequieto" que se nos aplicó desde el 2003. Empezó con en el noticiero de Globovision cuando la periodista comento declaraciones de Capriles que "según el" las cosas no nadaban bien en Venezuela.

Goodbye Globovision, goodbye freedom of information

Tonight we had final confirmation that the sale of Globovision has been accorded, to a group of financiers that are rumored not to be too distant from the regime. I am choosing the link from El Pais in Spain to announce it so that we detach ourselves a little bit of the local emotion, one I refused to participate in as soon as the first tweets popped this past week end. And also because as far as Venezuela is concerned El Pais, mistaken Chavez picture in its cover or not, has the best track record on Venezuela info overall in the last decade.

Digital TV in Venezuela: safely pro regime (Globovision to be executed)

How late we are.....

URGENTE UPDATE (including modified title)

So today I read there was a cadena (I am at work, no broadband, no TV). The reason (any reason is good to promote the hair, Maduro) was to inaugurate the first relays of digital TV. According to the official state TV, VTV, we will start with 11 channels.

Since I am accused of being always a critic I will start by the good part. The regime insists that digital TV will be free (on open broadcast, cable remains pay, of course). Also, they claim that they have done enough investment to bring very soon 50% of the population within coverage (they claim installations in 13 cities already). That is it, that is all the positive I can manage to find.

Chavismo's Agenda: 1 PM, proclaim dictatorship; 8 PM, first act on character

Well, it did not take long.

Around 1 PM, the Venezuelan high court, TSJ, decided that it was OK for somebody that has not been elected, not even to a local council, to rule over Venezuela for as long as it takes.

You can discuss at will the merits and demerits of that decision but the unavoidable fact is that Nicolas Maduro, AN APPOINTED OFFICIAL, will be for all practical purposes president of Venezuela for as long as he can get away with it. It could be short, a few weeks, until Chavez dies or comes back, or it can be long, as long as Chavez is plugged in to some device that keeps it alive even if brain dead.

Reppressingly yours

[UPDATED] Really, the Venezuelan government is panicking.  To say the least these past weeks have brought only bad news besides the succession war inside chavismo.  The IACHR ruling, the criticism at the UN HR assembly in Geneva, the bad economic news, the protests and more protests from a very dissatisfied el pueblo, the jail situation that seems to be getting worse in spite of a special ministry created for that, etc, etc....  So like a spoiled brat it is starting to kick the table and say that it will not play anymore.  And at the same time the said brat starts kicking the house pets just to show that it can still do some harm, albeit useless if not altogether counterproductive.

Yesterday it was Leopoldo Lopez who got screwed.  Today it is Globovision who is fined for, hold tight, 7.5% of its gross income for 2010.

Ordinary heroes, and other heroes and future freedom of expression Venezuelan heroes

UPDATED.  In the Washington Post editorial today I read the name of Laureano Marquez, the Friday's editorial writer at Tal Cual.  The Committee to Protect Journalists, CPJ, has awarded him a recognition, along other journalists from such dangerous places as Iran or Ethiopia.  In fact the CPJ entry on that subject has the picture of Laureano.  We need to congratulate the Post on deeming such awards worthy of an editorial, the more so that Chavez has this week renewed his attack on Globovision, this time probably meaning to close it once and for all.  In fact, Tal Cual today tells us that this afternoon a long cadena is expected, a cadena that Chavez might use for another series of obscene attacks against the US. (1)

Ravell out of Globovision: the politics of survival under XXI century neo-totalitarianism?

Alberto Federico Ravell, director of the lone remaining opposition network, has been ousted of his job.  This modest blogger of course has no access to the juicy information that all crave when such an event takes place.  But historical precedent and logic can go along way in establishing at least a credible hypothesis of what might be going on.

Let's start by reviewing the single facts.

No Mas Chavez: the fall out in Venezuela

You only need to look at the overreacting of many chavistas to notice that no matter how big yesterday's No Mas Chavez rally were, chavista officialdom is really upset. They cannot hide it.

Be it Chavez who takes lots of time to explain to us he does not care, from Syria, from Iran.

Be it the Venezuelan ambassador in Bogota who says that Venezuela is insulted (correction, you might be insulted, I am not) and implying that the Bogota government should not allow such demonstrations.

Be it the half-assed attempt today at calling pro Chavez march across Venezuela as the opposition led another successful and gigantic march in Caracas apparently dwarfing the counter march from chavismo.

Be it the Nazional Assembly member Augusto Montiel associating himself with people beating up anti Chavez protesters in Brussels.

In fact chavismo is so upset that revenge must be exacted. Thus Globovison, the closest object at hand, once again is under attack by a particularly bitter Diosdado Cabello, the guy in charge while Chavez visits the planets collection of tyrants. Not only a new investigation against Globovision is undertaken for a single alleged SMS (whereas the VTV ticker spews constant violence that the regime supports by ignoring them), but 29 more radio stations are to be taken off the air waves (in addition to the 34 already killed). Globovison offers the video of Cabello threats and bitterness. But the world is noticing and Diosdado words hit the news wires fast, even in English. They sure will be a nice complement to Chavez words supporting Iran's nuclear program today.

Meanwhile there will be more wounds to lick for Chavismo: BBCmundo reports that in Honduras the No Mas Chavez was big in 5 cities of the small country while the pro Chavez zelayista camp coudl only manage an activity in Tegucigalpa. The picture on the left is from the BBC mundo site and speaks for itself, even at a time where suddenly the US decides to show more bite against Honduras. A very bad P.R. week for chavismo.

-The end-

Hillary Clinton talks to Globovision

[Post interview update]

The news that will have chavismo foam at the mouth tonight is the interview that Hillary Clinton, US Secretary of State in case you were still not aware, granted not only to Globovision but to its leading show, Alo Ciudadano, and its anchor Leopoldo Castillo. The picture of the three of them, Globovision baseball cap included (on the right side Ravell, Globovision director).

Of course, I will not insult your intelligence interpreting this piece of news because even if Hillary talks for one minute only and about the weather only, the symbol is there for all to see. Enjoy!

To be filed under the "I cannot believe it is not butter" label.

Update: Waiting for the show I heard a lovely interview of Lucio Gutierrez, ex Ecuador president, removed forcibly from office in an Honduras like move. But then Insulza was not yet on the payroll of Chavez while Lucio had managed the shit list of Chavez after having been one of his favorite person in the world (like Chavez, he was a failed coupster). There are so many threads of double and triple and quadruple standards that my head spins.

Update 2, post interview

The interview was functional. Leopoldo Castillo was obsequious and ill at ease, wondering whether he should behave like an ex-ambassador or a journalist. Annoying presence.

Questions were standard and Hillary responses standard, avoiding any controversy, avoiding to say what Castillo wanted her to say. Still, she made it clear that things in Venezuela are not kosher and that she is aware of it. All in all, very competent at what she is supposed to do right now, avoid further trouble for her country which is overtaxed.

No matter what, the interview does not solve anything, does not protect Globovion from being closed though it makes very clear that the price Chavez will have to pay for it will be very high. Interestingly, the Honduras part of the country revealed how irrelevant Venezuela will become as negotiations keep going. The US might have taken the lead by sponsoring Nobel winner Oscar Arias as an intermediary but the confidence of Clinton betrayed that the US is backed. And if it is not by Venezuela/ALBA you can guess easily who it is.

As soon as the interview was over I switched to VTV to watch La Hojilla reaction. I was not disappointed as Mario Silva was livid, as furious as I ever saw him. And to add insult to injury his guest was Eva Golinger who is becoming "la propia vende patria". Comments were predictable: Obama is the same thing; Castillo is betraying the country; we are going to close Globovision anyway; and the like.... Proving that the interview hit a raw nerve. The top was Silva belching "who named Arias?" betraying his resentment at 1) his boss not being on the forefront anymore and 2) that Arias did the most to block a commie take over of Central America 20 years ago.

-The end-

Want to piss off Chavez? Pay Globovision's fine!

[IMPORTANT UPDATE]

Being in Caracas a few days allow me to participate in a nice and cool activity that will piss off Chavez: I paid this morning 100 Bs.F for the fine that the SENIAT (tax SS police, makes the IRS looks nice and civil) gave Globovision.

I am willing to pay more but one point of the protest is to get one million people to pay. This will not happen as this would require 1 million people to go to the bank to deposit at least 5 BsF and too many Chavez haters just cannot be bothered. However if next week the 5 millions are not gathered yet, I will go back and give more money for Globovision.

But as everything in Venezuela, there is more to it. Only one bank is participating so far, Banco Venezolano de Credito whose president Oscar Garcia is one of the main Chavez opponent. BVC does as little as possible business with the state, eschewing a lot of those "sweet deals" that have profited so many banks such as BOD or BANESCO. You know, get rich quick schemes playing the markets and currency exchange with complicity from public "servants" manipulating public funds for speculation instead of putting them to good use.

But Oscar Garcia has even more merit as his half brother has been kidnapped a couple of months ago without any news, and even suspicions of rogue government personnel behind the professional operation that targeted, curiously, a major opposition bank.

Thus you get triple bang for your bolivar, you support Globovsion, you support BVC and in addition you will go through a very unique moment: going to the bank one of the first thing you will see is the instructions on how to deposit in Globovision account. If you are afraid to give your name, have a friend on the Tascon list (like me) do it for you or go ahead and give a fake name: when you deposit cash no one checks your ID. But do not be afraid, take a stand and stop being a wimp: chavista or not you need to stand about the violation to our freedom of information that closing Globovision would be. Soon enough you will end on some apartheid list anyway, chose your moment at least.

And think about Chavez face when he sees "el pueblo" paid the fine of Globovision.

BVC agencies in most important cities of Venezuela (but not in San Felipe)

And if you pay something, let us know and see how much this blog readers did rise for Globovision!!!!

----------------------------

UPDATE!!!!

Many of you have expressed the wish to deposit for Globovision from outside Venezuela. Depositing directly is not the way to go becasue:

1) I was advised not to publish any account number
2) It would be a rip off favoring the government since your hard earned dollars/euros will be counted at 2.15 instead to the better rate you can find elsewhere

The best way is to give the money to a trusted source willing to put up with the hassle. This person would receive your funds, inform me on how much was received AFTER confirmation and then I would arrange for the deposit in bolivars made at a better rate than the 2.15. That person(s) eventually would forward me the dollars/euros.

It is all a matter of trust as I will not even be able to publish the receipt of the deposits as I cannot afford to be tracked down on that one since I could be breaking a few laws. Illegal and unjust laws but bolivarian laws nevetheless (the contact person on the other had would be safe as I probably ask him/her to send the money to a friend of mine).

Right now I am contacting folks and if I can come up with a safe system I will announce it and you will need to write to me for me to send you the email of the contact person with whom you will make the arrangements. Warning, it might take a couple of days to set it all up.

The simpler way is of course to have a relative in Venezuela trustworthy enough to make a deposit for you and then you give them your cash whenever you can.

-The end-

Facts and Fiction on Chavez reasons to close media

This week we are commemorating two years of the closing of RCTV while we are contemplating the very distinct possibility of Chavez closing Globovision at any moment. Yesterday in yet another cadena where Chavez shows increasing imbalance, he DEMANDED that the judicial power closed Globovision. That is, he does not even pretend that there is a separation of powers in Venezuela, he gives the order in public, requesting the resignation of the judicial "personnel" that is not willing to carry his orders. In English here and in Spanish here much more complete, with video included.

But let's not waste time in discussing the reasons for his latest immature and psychotic outburst (oxymoron? redundancy? intended). Let's review instead some of the facts and fiction surrounding this whole business, things lost in the hot air waves issued from the marathon Alo Presidente that is plaguing us with cadenas for the next three days.

Coup mongering in Venezuela

Fiction: the media conspired in 2002 to overthrow Chavez.

Fact: we are now 7 years and 1 month since April 2002 and not a single indictment has been issued against the owner or journalist of any of the private media that chavismo ROUTINELY accuses of being coupsters ("golpistas").

Interpretation? If in 7 years nothing has happened we must suspect one or more of the following: no hard evidence available to indict anyone for April 2002 events (let's not forget that the judicial system is FULLY in the control of Chavez since 2004); complicity between some media and Chavez (that one dedicated to mercenary Venevision and its owner, Gustavo Cisneros); incompetence and/or betrayal of people that should be indicting the media owners (which of course assume that indeed these media owners were acting in a conspiracy which send us to square 1, no evidence presented so far).

The media distort the message

Fiction: the private media are basically washing the brain of the people by emitting anti Chavez propaganda all the time and lying all the time about what is really happening in the country.

Fact: the government has in fact dominated the airborne media since 2004, and overwhelmingly dominated it since RCTV was closed in 2007. Today there is no single free air borne media espousing a critical line available nation wide. Globovision, the case presently at hand ONLY COVERS Caracas and Valencia, that is much less than a third of the Venezuelan homes. At local levels only some TV and radio stations are mildly critical and in some areas of the country, in particular rural areas, there is not a single airborne media that is critical of the government. Any criticism heard in such areas is of the intra party fighting nature, not from the opposition to the government.

Some specifics. There is ONLY one radio network allowed nation wide, RNV, and it is basically a propaganda outlet 24/24. The state controls two nation wide networks, VTV which is 24/24 propaganda and Tves which is part propaganda and part entertainment. ViVe is growing fast along Telesur and they are pro government 24/24. Only Venevision has a nationwide coverage and it is rather pro Chavez, only allowing some counted criticism of the government and only by some "selected" opposition figures. And even that is a rarer and rarer occurrence. Televen is a little bit more "independent" in its nightly news but it does not cover all the country.

In other words, unless you have access to cable TV, in some areas of the country, perhaps as much as half of it, you cannot obtain reliable information from both sides of the story. And on the other half, outside of Caracas and Valencia, objective information is limited.

Interpretation? With the overwhelming control of airborne media supplemented by the forced simultaneous broadcasts on ALL airborne media of Chavez speeches for hours every week (the infamous cadenas!), the message of the government is fully accessible everywhere, in large amounts. The problem is elsewhere.

That remote control problem or why is the "correct" information not reaching the people?

Fiction: that people are not listening to Chavez is a question of brain washing, and international media conspiracy, sabotage. Journalists are paid by the media owners to spread lies and disinformation.

Fact: If there is a media owner that pays its journalists to editorialize rather than present the real news it is the current Venezuelan government. TV shows such as La Hojilla in VTV would have been long banned in any democratic country. Besides, the sheer amount of cadenas and cadena time should have belittled any effort made by the alleged mercenary journalists in misinterpreting Chavez glorious deeds. Is Chavez not supposed to be his best publicist? Is that not the avowed objectives of cadenas and Alo Presidente? Has he not won the 2006 reelection with 60%+ vote in spite of a hard core RCTV and Globovision opposition?

Interpretation? What is happening here is that the government realizes that in spite of its best efforts people are increasingly tuning out the official message even among those who still vote for Chavez. Apparently the government has a poor understanding of a device existing in at least 90% of Venezuelan homes: the remote control of the TV set. No one so far has been able to fix such remotes so that they can only show only, say, Globovision. Chavismo simply cannot comprehend why the huge majority of the Venezuelan people at night will prefer to watch anything else but the propaganda coming out of VTV or ViVe. Watching soap operas by the chavista voter strata has long been considered subversive as Chavez more than once has admitted that his cadenas preempted the "novelas" that were bad for the people to begin with.

So now not only Globovision must be shut down but the Nazional Assembly is diligently preparing a text that will force Cable TV to pass mandatory cadenas and remove from the menu TV stations that displease the government (Cable TV is exempt of cadenas transmission and RCTV with soon Globovision have only cable as a refuge). How long until National Geographic or Animal Planet are judged subversive, anti revolutionaries?

A word to end

I know, I know, this is yet again a repeat on things that I have extensively written on and on in the past. But I thought a nice, simple text in clear format would be useful for people who need to explain what is going on really in Venezuela these days: as the going is getting tough, Chavez does not want the people to know what is really going on inside Venezuela. Repression and economic crisis do not make for a good Chavez image on TV.

Or, the only freedom of choice that chavismo understands is their freedom to tell you what to watch.

-The end-

That remote control problem: closing down on Globovision

The international press might have highlighted again the now routine threats that Chavez will close the supply of oil to the US, but that was not the real news from Venezuela. Of course with 12 billion of PDVSA assets frozen, the casual observer might think that Chavez will finally shut down oil supply to the States. But that is not what matters in Caracas today: what matters is the renewed interests of chavismo to shoot the last messenger left, Globovision.

The reasons are very simple, and have not changed: Globovision is the only TV network that regularly displays the problems that the country is suffering, the real problems of the people. Which are these problems? Lack of some food items; crime reaching levels unheard of and putting Caracas in the top 5 more dangerous cities in the world; inflation among the highest in the world, affecting food prices the most, the prices which are most felt by the poor; lack of real jobs as too many depend on government handouts and public services jobs where wearing a red beret is de rigueur; and more, much more. It is easy to understand that at a time where the government is showing increasing strain and where its ineptitude is becoming extraordinarily obvious Globovision (or any other critical media) is something that will need to be dealt with.

There is that saying that homo sapiens is the only animal that stumbles twice over the same stone. It seems that the government has already forgotten that closing RCTV was a huge mistake, a mistake that was in large part the cause of losing the December 2 referendum as it made it clear to the Venezuelan people that the referendum was about naked power grab more than the betterment of the people. Closing Globovision would be a much , much worse mistake. That perspective does not seem to stop chavismo who as it feels the waters rising to its neck is showing signs of acute despair.

The problem for Chavez and the sycophants that surround him is that diversity is not their strong point. They are all mediocre individuals and have reached high position just because Chavez has charisma. Any other group that might show some success in their field is feared because it exposes their mediocrity. It is very simple actually, a very normal emotional reaction for the feeble of mind.

Chavismo simply cannot understand why Globovison is the most worn out button on the remote control in Caracas and Valencia, the only markets where Globovision is on open broadcast (the rest of the country is cable only). That is right: if you have no cable TV in Caracas the TV set will offer you a limited choice. From the government side, most of the media dedicate most of their broadcasting time to support or emit outright propaganda in favor of Chavez. You have VTV, ViVe TV, Teves, Avila TV, Telesur, ANTV just to name the main ones. That is: 6 networks plus the minor players. On the border line supporting of chavismo you have Venevision and Canal I. Neutral there is only Televen. For the opposition there is only Globovision. Though it must be repeated endlessly that Globovision emits the news, that is, emits all the petulant declarations of Chavez and his ministers and offers them a mic if they were to accept their invitation. But the government has become allergic to probing questions by real journalists. On the other hand you can look by yourself how much from the opposition side makes it to the news in the 6 networks mentioned above.

Chavismo is helpless against Globovision whose ratings surpass easily of any of the pro Chavez channels in Caracas, a truly remarkable feat for a 24 news channel. That it is due to the state media passing programs that do not reflect the reality of Venezuela does not seem to reach chavismo folks. So, after having tried to confuse the audiences by offering all sorts of state media, there is only one recourse left for chavismo: take the remote control out of the people's hand. Because this would be the effect of closing Globovision: there will be no more choice for news, thus no more need for channel surfing since all would say "viva Chavez!". Or remain silent.

Unfortunately for chavismo that would spell its final demise. Globovison is increasingly offering its air waves to chavista rank and file complaining that they cannot go to VTV to expose their just causes: a large chunk of chavismo knows now full well that if they have a complaint, the state media will not air it. That is why Chavez must shut up Globovision, as things are getting increasingly difficult for him he thinks he can hide the times through censorship.

-The end-

Chavismo caught in its contradictions and lies

This week has been really hard on poor chavistas.

It all started last Sunday when their beloved leader blew up a few of his fuses and ranted furiously in front of less than half filled Avenida Bolivar. His speech that day will deserve a footnote in "Historia Universal de la Infamia".

But good soldiers they are (though many of them are just mercenaries) and they got ready to obey the orders of Chavez, just in case he actually meant his words, but hoping that they would not have to do so. As bad luck had it, they had to...

Tuesday "mi general" Baduel came out against the constitutional reform in the most stinging of criticism to the fraudulent project. Chavez himself that night had to go on line to the Vanessa Davies "show" to call Baduel a traitor and to say that Bolivar was murdered and that he personally would set this matter clear. Chavez as a star of "Cold Case: CSI Caracas" the new hit show. Obviously for the rest of the week we saw boatloads of chavistas who spent recent years ass kissing Baduel bending backward past breaking point to call him a traitor. Clearly chavismo is ready for Stalin show trials. The new constitution will allow finally for their official set up.

Still, that week would strain chavismo ability to recant the obvious. Wednesday the world press, not Globovision nor any Venezuelan junket, showed how a returning group from the huge and pacific student march was met at the UCV by chavista gunmen. Now, in normal circumstances chavismo would have been able to muddle things well enough to confuse its followers, easily duped. But this time all the documentary evidence comes from international news agency pictures who had a field day in shots that went around the world. A few of these camera men added quite a few points towards their year end bonus. Heck, even the French news had Venezuela in the nightly news two days in a row! And not with a pro Chavez coverage.

This very sad event will leave us with what seems to have become the symbol of the Constitutional Reform, a picture so telling about the conviction power of chavismo these days. Vote SI or be dead.



Since Wednesday the government has been trying to sell the version that a few nice chavista students were savagely entrapped in the Social Sciences building of campus by hordes of anti Chavez students trying to smoke them out. Yet, I think that even the attorney general said that "one of the pro Chavez student might have had a gun". I do not know whether Isaias Rodriguez said that, with those words or not, because the web of tales has become so dense, and interchangeable among chavismo, that one gets dizzy. Unfortunately in all videos available the guns, and the escape motorbikes, and the people shooting from motorbikes have all been tied with pro Chavez sectors. Including the cops at the entry of campus that let the bikers go in and out without any trouble, even on bikes belonging to the police.

Thus this week is ending with all chavistadom out in force using the last reply tool they have left once arguments are voided: insult and smearing. We saw that a lot in the National Assembly where chavismo was calling for the closing of Globovision for promoting terror and accusing CNN of supporting every single item uttered by Globovision. I suppose that soon chavismo will provide us a video of CNN's Viotto giving guns to chavistas.....

But chavismo tales certainly cannot explain while Simon Romero of the New York Times had to track down Yon Goicoechea , one of the student leaders who has been so threatened that even though we supposedly live in a land of liberty and absolute freedom of expression has started sleeping in different places. And he has to change cell phones every few days. From the Romero article we can see that chavismo explanations are not flying overseas. Well, they seem to be crash landing at home too. The student protest are slowly but surely becoming the good guys side, the heroes. After all, who can believe that a revolution is made AGAINST the bulk of the student body of a country? Who can take seriously the pro chavez students, all but one unelected from any campus group, most on some form of governmental payroll.

In a curious turn of events we also got the news yesterday that Tascon of the infamous list was expelled from the PSUV, the socialist party which is the cryptic organization that will act soon as the traditional commie parties of the Soviet era. Apparently Tascon had the misfortune to say that how come Baduel was treated as a traitor if Arias Cardenas who said much worse things about Chavez in 2000 was now his ambassador to the UN. A closed door short meeting was enough to expel Tascon. This one, we must stress once again, had a role akin to an evil Baduel of the Recall Election process in that his actions helped greatly Chavez secure a fraudulent victory. The homonym list he set up then from the names of those who signed is still used today extensively as an active political discrimination tool, pure McCarthyism of the XXI century. At least we know that in the purge department the chavismo that will emerge after December 2 will be highly efficient. Bringing us milk to our tables will be another story.

Yes, milk. There are reports also of people fighting for a pound of powder milk; or of the armed forces battling the "buhoneros" to force them to sell milk at the regulated prices. these ones preferred to spill milk on the side walk. As the shelves of Venezuela are slowly lacking more and more items we learned that through the dismal inefficiency of the Venezuelan public administration 1660 cows died in a ship at Puerto Cabello. In a tale worthy of Garcia Marquez tug boats had to push the boat at sea to throw overboard the putrescent meat. No word form the sharks yet though we are sure that the land sharks will keep whatever commission they pocketed to bring missing meat to Venezuela even if that one will never reach the shelves.

And then, perhaps to make sure that people for a few hours stopped talking about missing milk, sugar and what not, Chavez decided to fight with the King of Spain. This one told Chavez to shut up while a puffed Chavez did not seem to realize on the spot the gravity of what had happened. The room at the Ibero-American summit applauded loudly in support of Zapatero at the end of his angry but amazingly still polite reply to Chavez (the King had left in disgust).

I must say that we are in awe this week as to how chavismo committed so many errors and displayed so consistently its true totalitarian inner child. I was looking for some symbol to convey that idea to the readers of this blog and I found it this morning while reading Friday's Tal Cual. Wednesday night there was an interesting TV moment. Vanessa Davies, one of the anchors of the state TV, VTV, was in full spin action for the UCV shooting. She was interviewing some of the "victims" who escaped at great risk the "encircled building" where the "lynch mob" was going at work.

Unfortunately at the very same moment Globovision was able to split the screen image and show side by side that the spokesperson of the "victim group" interviewed by Vanessa was in fact one of the leaders of the chavista group at the UCV where he was carrying a heavy weapon with all the intentions of using it. I have these pictures below from Tal Cual. I think chavismo will be well advised to take a deep breath before hitting the stages of VTV because now almost anyone has a video camera on hand to film all the abuses that these mercenaries are committing.

Then again I suppose that the intention of Vanessa Davies was to shore up the faith of the truly faithful who seem to be deserting fast the "SI" voting ranks of the coming referendum if we are to believe the polls. It looks that chavismo is now more concerned about stopping the hemorrhage than gaining new supporters.

The legend for the pictures: Thus the cynicism of the XXI century. Not only do the chavista shooters act without any restraint or any consequences for them, kidnap students, go through police barriers and rescue themselves but they have at their service the communication apparatus of the state. Last Wednesday night the social studies student José Félix Valera appeared on VTV the network which allegedly belongs to all, all Venezuelans, presenting himself as an innocent victim of the "violent oppositionists" [inexistent term in either Spanish of English but coined as a pejorative by chavismo] when in fact he was one of the main characters of the armed aggression of the fascist chavismo at the UCV [sic]. This in VTV is what they call "Contacto con la realidad" [contact with reality], the distortion of news to satisfy an alleged political and revolutionary engagement and a permissive journalism.



Note: this post is heavy on links to my previous posts. Not a question of narcissism but these posts contain many links with their explanations to the original info.

-The end-

RCTV comes back, sort of, while Globovision fights back to stay

This weekend the rumor of an eventual return of RCTV were confirmed: I saw it myself Saturday AM when on my Direct TV screen I saw the RCTV logo running in an endless loop, channel 103 for those interested. The papers confirmed that vision: Intercable will give the number 13 to RCTV, NetUno will give varied numbers as they change according the region. But Supercable has declined, with the confession that they do not want to "run into trouble" with the government.

Now, what does that mean exactly? Not much. Cable, even if Supercable were to be included, does not reach 25% of Venezuelan homes. Even adding Internet (by the way, those who can watch RCTV through Internet and YouTube certainly can afford cable), even adding those who steal the signal of some cable company, no more than 30% of Venezuelan homes have access to some form of cable TV, and mostly in upper income areas: poorer areas simply cannot afford a cable bill unless a few pool together and steal the signal with the complicity of the payer. One of the reasons by the way why you see many Direct TV satellite dishes in the barrios is that Direct TV signal cannot be stolen that easily. Besides, installing expensive and vulnerable ground line in popular district is a deterrent for other systems than Direct TV. The paradox is that the poor are forced to buy the more expensive satellite system if they want to escape Chavez blabber.

The result is that RCTV will go from a 100% national coverage to a 30% coverage AT BEST. With the consequent decrease in advertising revenue. The implications for RCTV is that it will be difficult to keep its large staff and producing capabilities and news coverage, at least as long as it does not manage to sell enough production overseas. Right now, outside the US and Colombia I do not see that many buyers for anything Venezuelan except soap operas.

Will chavismo settle for a diminished RCTV? Not sure. On the positive side for chavismo it effectively removed RCTV from the popular areas so that RCTV will not be able to offer the very needed counter information against the permanent Chavez propaganda. RCTV and Globovision together will not reach more than 50% of the country and thus 50% will have to rely on either sycophantic pro Chavez media (VTV, ViVe) or on mildly pro Chavez to neutral TV (the rest).

The real reason why the government might not accept that "compromise", even though it would go a long way to assuage some of the foreign concerns on that matter, is that the new RCTV will be called RCTV "internacional". Under the current rules, as an international cable channel AND as a network that does not emit on the air waves directly, RCTV would be exempt from following cadenas. That is, when ALL VENEZUELAN CHANNELS must go into simultaneous broadcast to transmit the silly Chavez tirades, RCTV can keep along, minding its own business, and passing the news that sometimes Chavez tries to hide through his cadenas (April 11, 2002 anyone?). That by itself could push many folks to make the financial sacrifice to get cable as they will be able to watch their soap operas without interruption. The only winners right now are the cable companies. That is, until Chavez decides to strike against them, in particular if RCTV manges a 30% rating again in spite of all the obstacles. I suspect that this will happen, not counting all the legal attacks that the government is certain to launch against RCTV to shut it up once and for all.

And what about Globovision? While we are discussing attacks on RCTV and the media, let's look at the letter that Globovision posted as full page ad in all major Venezuelan newspapers. I have taken picture even if is rather hard to read (click to enlarge). It is a big picture and I had to reduce it to try to make my page as easy a download as possible. You can read the full letter at the Globovision site, by clicking the little green arrow on the lower left corner.

What does the letter say? It is addressed by the CEO of Globovision to the Vice President Jorge Rodriguez. It was received at the vice presidency on June 29 and since on Saturday 8 of July there was no reply yet, Globovision decided to make a big deal of it and publish it.

In short: it openly calls Jorge Rodriguez a liar. This is no surprise of course, we have seen all the lies of Rodriguez when he was the head of the CNE. Of the regime figures he is with the interior minister Pedro Carreño the two characters that are least trusted in Venezuela, in particular within the opposition. Personally I would leave my wallet alone in a room with Chavez but I would not do so with these two creeps.

The main themes of the letter:

• In the country there is a state policy to diminish and destroy the Venezuelan media.
• Many international institutions are aware of the abuses made by the Chavez administration.
• Globovision alone has reported and documented 59 physical aggressions, 174 verbal aggressions from government officials.
• To date NO ACTION has been undertaken by the Venezuelan judicial system to address these offenses and protect the victims.
• But in addition the government has undertaken judicial action against Globovision and those ones do see action in the courts, contrary to the ones presented by Globovision.
• Against Globovision there are 19 court cases, 6 administrative actions and many "investigations".
• The president and most of his personnel refuse any interview to Globovison whereas they give it to state media at will and to international media on occasion.
• The government has been refusing to accept increased coverage of Globovision (UHF), going to the length to grant previously UHF range reserved for Globovision expansion to other media.
• The human rights of Globovision and its workers have been under attack and defended by many important international organizations and the government, in violation of its international agreements, has refused to take action.
  

So there you go, the gauntlet is thrown. If Rodriguez does not respond he admits the arguments of the letter. If he replies he must attack further. but it will be very difficult for him to ignore for long such a full page ad where he is personally asked to justify his words.

What does this mean? Globovision knows that it will be closed sooner than later, that Chavez simply cannot allow independent information in Venezuela, at the moment which his regime is facing so much problems and at the moment when he wants to establish his rule for ever and ever. Chavez has no choice but to close Globovision (and "re"-close RCTV by the way). Globovison knows it and it is preparing itself to go down with its boots on.


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A visual image of the future of Venezuelan information

As the closing date of RCTV approaches, I was trying to figure out a way to convey what it would mean as to the quality of information that will reach us as of May 28. In the best of circumstances, with the poor rating numbers available, and considering the forced cadenas which force Chavez message on all (tonight we are getting yet another one of those hours long mandatory simultaneous broadcast on all TV channels), I finally came up with a reasonable graphic way: the pie chart.

For this I considered the following: 1) the potential public range, that is, national or local, 2) the amount of time dedicated to information, 3) the availability on open air signal or cable only. Thus to the open air signal nation wide (RCTV, VTV, Venevision and Televen) I gave 50 points. The other ones would be getting less. For example Globovision is on cable but does not cover the whole country with open air signal so it gets 40. But local stations. I only considered large markets which added up to only 10 to 20 points. And so on. I did not include the ratings as the pro opposition case woudl be even more striking as RCTV holds between 35 and 50% of ratings according to the "novela" on the air, I tried to consider potential market

Thus we get this first graph where the different colors mean the following: red, networks that only show pro Chavez info, yellow, networks that tend to show the crude reality of the country and thus would be called by chavistas as yellow journalism, in pink the networks that have been effectively neutered by chavismo and thus show mild pro Chavez news with an occasional criticism. And in light green the networks that have no news anyway.


Clearly the balance is in favor of Chavez. Even though I consider that I tried to favor as much as possible the share of opposition air time the most the end result is pretty much what the perception of a casual observer in some Caracas hotel room would be.

If Chavez effectively seizes RCTV then the least we can expect is a less obvious pro Chavez message than the other pro Chavez networks, and thus the change to a in between orange to red color (we are told that the new network to come, TeVes, might not even have a newscast, but the choice of programing will be telling). However, the pressure of the small local TV that still sort of air some anti Chavez complains from "el pueblo" would become intolerable and some of them would shift to an either no news format or prepare to be taken over at some point, thus the green yellow that I put them.

Form this graphic you get clearly two things: the sources of non governmental news will be restricted to Globovision and the reach of that one will not be enough to maintain the country adequately informed. In fact, if you are known as someone watching Globovision that would brand you in the barrios and people wanting to watch Globvision might have to watch it at low volume, behind closed doors, a little bit as Western occupied Europe listened to the BBC hiding from Nazi ears.

No matter what, Chavez will get an overwhelming communicational advantage and through cadenas and forced advertisement (10 minutes daily already) he woudl minimize somewhat any effect of Globovision. It will be clearly the end of freedom of information in Venezuela.

The question of course would become, as of May 28, how long until Globovision succumbs?

(hat tip: someone on Alo Ciudadano who held a lousily made graphic of a pie chart on the topic so I could not resit but make a better one, more complete).

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