Caracas, March 26: The owner of Venezuela’s only television channel that remains critical of President Hugo Chavez has been arrested, spurring concerns among rights activists of a widening government crackdown aimed at silencing critics.
Attorney General Luisa Ortega said a warrant was issued for the arrest of Guillermo Zuloaga, owner of the TV channel Globovision, for remarks that were deemed “offensive” to the president.
Zuloaga said that military intelligence agents detained him at an airport in the northwestern state of Falcon.
Ortega said prosecutors are investigating Zuloaga for statements he allegedly made during a recent meeting of newspaper owners in the Dutch Caribbean island of Aruba, where media executives from across the Americas criticised Chavez’s government for limiting freedom of expression.
Ortega said pro-Chavez lawmakers requested the probe, arguing that Zuloaga should be prosecuted for “offensive and disrespectful comments against the head of state” during the meeting of the Inter American Press Association. She did not reveal the statements that Zuloaga allegedly made.
The arrest came three days after opposition politician Oswaldo Alvarez Paz was detained for remarks made on a Globovision talk show on March 08.
–PTI