The private channel Venevisión challenged Chavismo’s censorship on Wednesday by broadcasting an informative preview about the meeting between the opposition leader María Corina Machado and the Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio, a report that hours later led to a threat from the Minister of the Interior, Diosdado Cabello.
At 5:00 pm, the news Venevision News broadcast a segment At the moment, Usually used for breaking news. In that space, journalist Néstor Brito Landa reported the meeting held in Washington.
As part of the advance, the channel broadcast an excerpt from a press conference offered by Machado around the State Department.
In that fragment, the opposition leader stated: “Although I am not physically in Venezuela, my heart is with you and very soon I will be back in our country, So today more than ever we know that it is a spiritual struggle and that we have advanced hand in hand with God.”
The information block included as a second breaking news item some statements by the Minister of Defense, Vladimir Padrino López, in which he stated that Delcy Rodríguez, interim president, has “legitimacy of origin” as commander in chief of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces.
However, hours after that broadcast, Diosdado Cabello launched a threat against Venevisión in your program With the hammer giving, although he did not delve into the controversy.
Venevisión eliminated the expanded report
After that warning, The channel chose to abruptly cut the expansion of the report about María Corina Machado in her stellar broadcast. In the rest of the newscast, his meeting with Marco Rubio was not mentioned again, despite the political and media impact.
Despite the pressure exerted by the US government of Donald Trump on the Chavista regime – today controlled by Rodríguez -, traditional and independent media continue subjected to threats and pressure that lead them to avoid the dissemination of facts that those in power may consider uncomfortable.
For years, these practices have limited coverage of opposition leaders and any information that represents hope for change for the population. It even happened almost two years ago during the presidential campaign of Edmundo González Urrutia, who was censored on screens and radio.
The regime has advanced in almost total control of the information ecosystem, including digital media. Dozens of news portals are blocked, including The National, preventing citizens from accessing independent information.
This situation has occurred in parallel with the arrest and persecution of journalists, as well as with the constant closure of radio stations, which has increasingly reduced the spaces for the free exercise of journalism.
