Miami (May 19, 2011)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today strongly protested a serious attack on press freedom shown by the occupation and blockade of the Caracas pressroom and warehouse of a Venezuelan newspaper.
Officials of the Libertador mayor’s office, acting on the orders of Mayor Jorge Rodríguez, yesterday (May 18) took over a warehouse belonging to the newspaper El Nuevo País and the magazine Zeta where one of their printing presses is located and newsprint is stored.
The operation was carried out without any official order by Fundacaracas, an agency of the mayor’s office, and with the support of the Caracas police. Approximately 25 people arrived on motorcycles and in police vans and burst into the building, which is used to print the newspaper’s weekend editions, breaking locks and damaging the main entrance door.
The publisher’s executive vice president, Garciela Requena, told the IAPA that the mayor’s office employees and police officers explained to her initially that it was an expropriation. Some hours later, after a great deal of argumentation, they changed their story, saying that they had been carrying out the mayor’s orders to provide temporary shelter to people left homeless in local storms. In neither case did they show any supporting documentation.
During the occupation of the building, which lasted several hours and went on into the night, a group of participants blocked off entry from neighboring streets, refusing access, even to reporters from other news media that went there to cover the incident. In the end, pressure eased and the occupants left. The newspaper came out today, but was printed at another plant normally used for producing the weekday editions.
IAPA President Gonzalo Marroquín declared, “Nothing justifies this attempt at censorship of El Nuevo País and Zeta,” adding that there must be “locations more suited and healthier to tend to the needs of a family than a shed full of machinery, ink and chemicals to print newspapers.”
Marroquín, president of the Guatemala City, Guatemala, newspaper Siglo 21, added, “The nature of this incident is very suspicious when one takes into account the government’s sensitivity every time material critical of its administration is published.”
In recent daysEl Nuevo País has published reports from the German newspaper Die Welt concerning a secret agreement by the Venezuelan government with its Iran counterpart for construction of a ballistic missiles base in Venezuela.
Robert Rivard, chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information and editor of the San Antonio Express-News, Texas, said, “Restrictions on printing, distribution or dissemination of news is a serious attack upon freedom of the press” and equivalent to “prior censorship, which has no place under the Constitution of Venezuela or international treaties.”
This was the second planned invasion of El Nuevo País’ printing facilities so far this year. On January 13 there was an unsuccessful attempt by the mayor’s office to invade the newspaper’s private property. And in February the paper complained to the Venezuelan Press Bloc and the IAPA that its printing plant had been robbed, essential equipment disappeared and the newspaper’s production interrupted.
The paper’s owners, Rafael Poleo and his daughter Patricia, are currently living in exile in the United States due to political persecution in their homeland, where they are facing criminal charges.
The IAPA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 print publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida. For more information please go to http://www.sipiapa.org.
