Hugo Chavez: Limits Free Speech To Protect Himself

J.J. Jackson* | May 29, 2007

Letting a liberals, Marxists, socialists, fascists and communists get control of your country is bad. And the people of Venezuela might just be on the verge of learning how bad. Hugo Chavez has already taken the first step towards silencing any dissent of his policies by taking RCTV, a station very vocal in opposition to Comrade Chavez, off the air.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela’s replacement of an opposition television station on Monday with a state network promoting President Hugo Chavez’s socialist revolution drew sharp criticism that the former soldier is attacking democratic freedoms.The leftist leader took the RCTV station off the air shortly after midnight on Sunday, silencing a major opponent to reforms that have given him greater control over the judiciary, the military and the oil sector of this OPEC nation.

The European Union said it was concerned by the decision to replace Venezuela’s most popular television station with a new state-backed public service channel without allowing open competition and a tender process for a new broadcast license.

Of course Chavez’s excuse was that he is actually giving the station back to the people.

Chavez says he is democratizing the airwaves by turning the network‘s signal over to public use. His opponents condemned the move as an assault on free speech.

Odd how a Marxist like Chavez would consider taking a private station that was hugely popular already and replacing it with another that will support his agenda “democratizing” it, isn’t it? Well of course it is to intelligent people. But we all know that leftists like Chavez are not half as intelligent as they think they are.

The station ran government ads stating “Now Venezuela belongs to everyone.” Which actually means “Now Venezuela belongs to Hugo Chavez.”

Yep, just remember who runs down there to shake hands with this man and who are the people openly praising him. Because if you put them and people like them into power the same can happen here.

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