CARACAS – The head of a pro-opposition TV station in Venezuela said yesterday he had been arrested at an airport over comments he made about Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez’s government during an international media forum.
The move against Guillermo Zuloaga, president of Globovision network, follows the arrest of an opposition politician earlier this week and will fuel criticism that the Venezuelan government is increasingly stifling dissent.
Mr Zuloaga told his channel that he was about to fly in his private jet to the Caribbean island of Bonaire from Punto Fijo in western Venezuela when officials detained him.
Mr Zuloaga, whose network has a long history of disputes with Mr Chávez’s government, spoke about what he said were restrictions on freedom of expression during the recent Inter-American Press Association meeting in Aruba.
The Venezuelan national assembly, which is dominated by supporters of Mr Chávez, called this week for an investigation of Mr Zuloaga.
Venezuelan attorney general Luisa Ortega Díaz confirmed yesterday that authorities were going ahead with the investigation. “They [the legislators] consider that the expressions made in an international forum against the president of the republic are offensive and disrespectful to the head of state,” she told private TV station Venevision.
Mr Chávez says the government will not tolerate illegal incitement through the media or internet. – (Reuters)