Chavez Critics Silenced in Venezuela

Only days after a victory for free speech in the United States comes a major defeat for free speech in Venezuela.

Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez forced cable television providers to stop transmitting Radio Caracas Television because the station was not broadcasting his official propaganda messages.

Chavez had previously forced RCTV off the air by revoking it’s broadcast license. When the station was forced off the air in 2007, it moved to cable television to get it’s message to the Venezuelan people.

The move was announced by Diosdado Cabello, a Chavez henchman in charge of the government’s “communications agency”. Cabello threatened cable operators and the cable operators bowed to government pressure and removing RCTV from their cable feeds.

Chavez has also silenced radio stations who do not support his vision for “hope and change” in Venezuela. He has forced more than thirty radio stations off the air by revoking their broadcast licenses.

Cabello’s tactics are similar to the recommendations of Barack Obama’s FCC director Mark Lloyd. Lloyd has recommended that American radio stations be forced to broadcast leftist propaganda under a “Fairness Doctrine.” Cabello’s tactic was to force RCTV off the air by requiring it to broadcast leftist propaganda and then shutting it down when it refused to do so.

The unfortunate reality is that tactics like this do work. We’ve seen them work in the past in Russia, Germany, Cuba, and Zimbabwe. We’re seeing them work today in Venezuela and we’re seeing plans for their implementation in the United States. This is why our founding fathers had the wisdom to protect free speech in the Constitution. Obama has promised a “forceful” response to the decision of the U.S. Supreme Court to uphold the rights of free speech guaranteed by the Constitution. At this point, all Americans are now waiting to see what Obama has in mind.