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At this point, the old Edmund Burke quote is nearly cliched... but damn if it isn't apt. The honeymoon is over in Caracas. Those poor folks are about to learn the concept of Perestroika as the hammer has been pulled back for the next blow. God help the Venezuelans.

The Herald seems to have run a piece today (Sunday).

TV station going dark at midnight
Despite demonstrations and overwhelming popularity among citizens, an opposition TV station is scheduled to be shut down by the Venezuelan government tonight.
BY PHIL GUNSON
Special to The Miami Herald

CARACAS --
Venezuela's most popular television station will go off the air at midnight tonight, shut down by leftist President Hugo Chávez in what critics call an unprecedented move to silence dissident voices.

Chávez has charged that the ''fascist'' channel is guilty of ''coup-plotting'' and other attempts to destabilize his government. Officials argue the government is merely exercising its right not to renew a 20-year license it says expires this weekend.

To protest the shutdown of Radio Caracas Televisión (RCTV), tens of thousands of Venezuelans took to the streets Saturday chanting ''Freedom, Freedom.'' Police watched as protesters paraded along a Caracas avenue, some holding signs reading ''No to silence,'' while others taped their mouths.

In a counter-demonstration in a downtown plaza, hundreds of red-clad Chávez supporters gathered in front of a large television screen, where alleged violations by RCTV were replayed as the words, ''Tell the truth,'' rolled across the screen.

RCTV, which has been broadcasting since 1953 and reaches most Venezuelan homes, is famous for its soap operas and entertainment programs, including the world's longest-running comedy show, the halfcentury-old Radio Rochela.

NEWS SHOWS BLASTED

But its hard-hitting breakfast talk-show, The Interview, and an evening newscast that often highlights topics such as violent crime that the government would rather play down, have aroused the ire of the authorities. They say the station's owners, the 1BC group, and its director Marcel Granier, whom they refer to as ''oligarchs,'' have manipulated the news in their own interests in a bid to bring down the 8-year-old Chávez government.

''They have tried to create a dictatorship in which the owner of the médium is also the owner of the message,'' said Cilia Flores, president of the Venezuelan legislature.

Flores was addressing an open-air session of parliament Thursday at which a few dozen public employees looked on -- and sometimes clapped -- as legislators and Information Minister Willian Lara defended the closure. Polls suggest roughly eight out of 10 Venezuelans disagree with the measure.

On the street, opinions vary. ''When the coup attempt happened,'' said Paulina Corredor, 51, a clerk, ``they didn't tell us what was going on in our country.''

When Chávez was briefly ousted in 2002, RCTV and other private TV stations blacked out news of demonstrations that helped restore him to power in an apparent attempt to preserve the de facto regime of business leader Pedro Carmona.

But Malvy Marcano, 50, a public employee, said that if RCTV was guilty of backing the coup, ``so were all the others. So why are they taking it out on just one of them? I think it's political; it's an attack on freedom of expression.''

Of the four main TV channels that carry news -- which Chávez used to refer to as the ''four horsemen of the Apocalypse'' -- two have now effectively ditched criticism of the government. The other -- 24-hour news channel Globovisión -- is also in the government's sights, but its concession has several years to run.

Human rights organizations say the RCTV shutdown is arbitrary and unjust.

In a statement, Carlos Lauría of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said a three-month investigation by the CPJ had determined that the government was guilty of, ``a predetermined and politically motivated effort to silence critical coverage.''

The European Parliament and the U.S. Senate have criticized the move as a blow to freedom of expression.

The government says it will immediately replace RCTV's signal with what it calls a ''public service channel'' called TEVES. But despite its claims that the new channel will be open to all points of view, the record of other channels already under government control is not encouraging.

GOVERNMENT TOOL

''We fear that [TEVES] will effectively operate as a government organ,'' said Carlos Lauría. ''Five of the seven members of the board of directors will be appointed by the executive'' branch of the Venezuelan government.

Congressman José Albornoz of the pro-government party Motherland for All rejected the idea.

''It's not going to be a TV station for the state, for Chávez,'' Albornoz told The Miami Herald. ``That's very important. It's going to be a station that helps people understand a bit better what's happening in Venezuela.''

On Wednesday, the Venezuelan supreme court rejected RCTV's plea for an injunction to prevent the shut-down. But it agreed to hear the case against the measure at a later stage.

What's amazing to me is the tone of the stories you read in the MSM about the shutdown of RCTV (by the way I just did a Google search and that's the first story that came up -- but from a South Korean link!). They all take pains to point out how this station supported a coup against Chavez, and they have been against him from the start, etc. In other words, the point seems to be "the station had it coming".

Just imagine the hue and cry in the U.S. if the Bush administration said even one thing against the New York Times -- which has been against Bush from the start.

Actually I think the two stories you mention -- Venezuela and immigration reform -- are related, or will be in the future. I can foresee a massive exodus from Chavez' socialist paradise. I don't know what the statistics are but I think Venezuelans must be the number two or number three most numerous Latin immigrant group in the U.S. They have a lot of family members back in Caracas who will want to get out once the economy is run into the ground.

And now Reuters runs this about venezuelans protesting it..
http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSN2621739620070526?feedType=RSS&rpc=22

heres a bit of the article

CARACAS (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of Venezuelan protesters marched on Saturday to the Caracas headquarters of an anti-government television station, which is being forced off the air after President Hugo Chavez's administration refused to renew its broadcasting license.

Waving flags with the logo of RCTV, demonstrators packed the streets of the capital where news anchors and soap opera stars slammed the imminent closure of the opposition channel.

"What is happening here is simply the silencing of a television station," shouted soap opera actress Gledys Ibarra.

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