Authorities arrest owner of media outlet critical of Chavez

CARACAS, Venezuela
— Stepping up what opponents call a smack-down of opposition voices,
the Venezuelan attorney general said Thursday that authorities had
arrested the owner of Globovision, one of the few remaining media
outlets critical of President Hugo Chavez.

Guillermo Zuloaga was arrested at an airport in western Venezuela as he was preparing to fly his private airplane to Bonaire, a Caribbean vacation destination, for Easter week. Venezuelan Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz said he was detained because he was considered a flight risk.

On Wednesday, a judge denied bail for Oswaldo Alvarez Paz,
a former state governor and Chavez critic jailed the day before on
charges of incitement, conspiracy and spreading false information
during a March 8 interview on Globovision.

During that interview, Alvarez Paz said Venezuela had become a hub for drug trafficking and implied that the government was partly to blame.

Ortega Diaz said Zuloaga was jailed on charges of
contempt and for offending the chief executive of the republic, as well
as for statements made during the Inter American Press Association
meeting in Aruba earlier this month. At that meeting, Ortega Diaz said, Zuloaga accused Chavez of “being responsible for shooting Venezuelans.”

Chavez has lashed out at the media as he has come under increasing criticism from opposition figures for Venezuela’s high inflation, violent crime and what foreign diplomats and law enforcement say is rampant drug trafficking.

In May 2007, Chavez denied the renewal of a broadcast license of RCTV, then the most popular network in Venezuela
and also a staunch critic of the president. He has also forced the
closure of 33 independent radio stations and clamped down on regional
newspapers.

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