CNN has confirmed to news sources that Fernando del Rincon, a CNN en Español anchor who has been covering the protests in Venezuela over the past several months, has been forbidden by Venezuelan officials from covering the upcoming mayoral election in San Cristobal, Tachira.
According to Ultimas Noticias, del Rincon – who arrived in the country on Thursday ahead for the elections scheduled for Sunday – is still in the process of applying for the necessary paperwork to carry our journalistic duties in Venezuela, and if he is denied, will return to the United States tomorrow. CNN has not commented on the situation beyond the details given to Ultimas Noticias, citing that it is waiting for an official statement from the Venezuelan government on the matter.
El Nacional has picked up on the story as well, claiming that the Ministerio del Poder Popular para la Comunicacion y la Informacion [The Ministry of Popular Power for Communication and Information] has refused to give del Rincon the paperwork required to carry out journalistic work in Venezuela.
Human Rights Foundation – an NGO that fights for human rights across the world – released a statement on the matter, saying:
Human Rights Foundation (HRF) condemns the censure suffered by the CNN en Español journalist Fernando del Rincon, who was denied permission to report from Venezuela yesterday at approximately 5:00 PM without any reason.
(…)
‘Even though the authoritarian Venezuelan government tends to be hostile towards journalists and makes the work of international media difficult, this is the first time that it rejects a request for credentials from a CNN en Espanol journalist, the news channel with the largest audience in Latin America, and the only [international independent] channel whose programming can still be seen in Venezuela.’, said Garry Kasparov, president of the International Council of HRF.
(…)
‘Demanding permits of credentials for the exercise of journalistic activities constitutes an illegitimate restriction on the freedom of expression and violates international rights’, said Javier El-Hage, judicial director of HRF. ‘The Venezuelan state has been systematically violating the human rights of its citizens for years…’
The full text of the HRF declaration, in Spanish, can be found here.
In Other News
Yesterday, Maduro repeated a threat he had made earlier in relation to airlines who were rumored to be thinking about suspending operations in Venezuela until the $4,000,000,000 debt with the government was settled. At the inauguration ceremony of a new Conviasa flight between Caracas and San Fernando, Maduro said
No one can go up against Venezuela, neither in psychological nor in economic war. It’s true though, any [company] that leaves Venezuela in the middle of this economic war will not come back, they can stay over there, wherever they end up. They won’t come back to Venezuela because Venezuela has to be respected.
(…)
Whoever wants to hurt our homeland simply has to pay the price, it’s that simple.
It was announced today that Venezuela’s poverty rate increased from 21.2% in the first half of 2012 to 27.3% at the end of last year. According to the Instituto Nacional de Estadistica [National Statistics Institute], while there were 1,482,264 households living in poverty in 2012, that number had increased to 1,899,590 by the end of 2013. The image below, taken from El Universal and provided by the INE, shows the number of individuals (red) and households (green) living in poverty in millions going back to 1997:
The new figures appear to show a return to poverty levels that had been relatively steady since 2006, after a dip in the rate in 2012.
Finally, some pictures from Caracas tonight. This first one shows a power outage somewhere in the northern section of the city tonight:
A barricade in El Cafetal:
One of the demonstrators, apparently in the El Cafetal area, with what appears to be a makeshift fireworks launcher. I’ve seen similar contraptions used to help guide the flight path of fire work rockets:
Commentary
Maduro seems to be doing two things with his comments regarding airlines and other companies that might be thinking about suspending operations in Venezuela due to the government’s inability to pay debts. On the one hand, Maduro appears to be speaking to his base by appealing to their sense of justice and the idea that Venezuela “has to be respected”. By banning companies from coming back to Venezuela, Maduro is assuring his supporters that no offence against the homeland will go unpunished.
On the other hand, Maduro might also be trying to scare companies thinking about leaving the country, thereby forcing them to reconsider. By holding the threat of banishment from the country, he might be hoping that corporations thinking about suspending operations in the short term might re-think their strategy, if doing so would mean an end of business in Venezuela altogether.
If I am correct and Maduro is indeed trying to threaten companies into staying, he might be barking up the wrong tree. Given the size of the debt owed to the airline industry, and how unlikely it is that the government will be able to fully repay it, airlines might be tempted to cut their losses short and take Maduro up on his offer.
In Venezuela 