Miami Herald: South Florida donors aim to save Venezuelan TV station

Some South Floridians are raising funds to help a TV station viewed as critical of President Hugo Chávez to pay a $4 million fine to the Venezuelan government.

BY LUIS ANDRES HENAO
LHENAO@MIAMIHERALD.COM

Everyone Patricia Andrade talks to -- through e-mails, telephone calls, even at the bakery line while picking up arepas -- keeps asking her the same question: ``How much did you give to Globovisión?''

Andrade is among a growing number of Venezuelans in South Florida who have joined a fundraising campaign to help Venezuelan TV station Globovisión pay off a government fine now close to $4 million.

On Wednesday, the human rights lawyer sent a friend to deposit $13 in a Caracas bank.

'Everyone here is saying: `Have you heard? Globovisión is closing.' So we're all doing the same thing, asking all our family members and friends back in Venezuela to deposit for us,'' Andrade said. ``Everyone is mobilizing and asking, `Did you deposit?'

``It's an everyday conversation.''

The Venezuelan government has accused TV station Globovisión of plotting against President Hugo Chávez and generating panic by covering an earthquake earlier this year before state television made the official announcement. Last week, police raided the home of Globovisión's president and ordered the station to pay $2.3 million for giving free airtime to anti-government groups during a 2002 oil strike.

It's a fine that Venezuelans in South Florida hope they can help pay off to keep the station operating.

The fundraising drive, which was initially organized by students in Venezuela and then spread onto the Internet, comes with a suggested donation of just $2.50 per pledge. But local Venezuelans say every little bit will help keep alive something much more valuable. ''It's a small sum, not even half the price of a fast food combo,'' Andrade said. ``But if they close Globovisión, they close my freedom of expression.''

The drive kicked off last week and it is not known how much has been collected so far.

THREAT OF CLOSURE

The threat of closure for the station is real: RCTV, another TV station viewed as anti-Chávez, was booted off the air in 2007 and now draws a much smaller audience of paid viewers on cable.

Earlier this week, Venezuela's telecommunications regulator asked prosecutors to determine if Globovisión violated the law because of a talk show guest's comment that foes might kill Chávez. The station now faces four separate investigations related into its government coverage.

''They said they had made a mistake with the fine,'' Alberto Ravell, Globovisión's director, told The Miami Herald Wednesday in a telephone interview. 'Yesterday, they charged our lawyer with obstruction of justice, filed charges against the channel, closed our lawyers' office for 72 hours, and doubled the fine.''

In a statement on Tuesday, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists expressed concern that Chávez's warning was followed so quickly by the threat of a criminal investigation, The Associated Press reported.

''It sends a chilling message to what remains of Venezuela's critical media,'' said Carlos Lauria, the media group's senior program coordinator for the Americas.

Globovisión's future also was discussed in the general assembly Tuesday before several psychologists and psychiatrists, according Globovisión's Ravell.

``They were trying to say that Globovisión is an illness and we agree it is an illness -- for the government and the corrupt.''

Ravell, who jokes that the television channel has more defense attorneys than engineers, said he was touched by the effort of Venezuelans in South Florida who have joined the fundraising campaign. ''Those contributions are not an initiative of the channel,'' Ravell said. ``We have a large Venezuelan audience in Miami and they clearly haven't lost their link to Venezuela.''

Government officials said Venezuelans are free to act as they choose as long as they respect Venezuela's laws and the laws of the nations where they reside.

''What's important in this case is that Globovisión is facing administrative proceedings for tax violations, the illegal use of frequencies, and violations to the TV and Radio Law of Social Responsibility and the Organic Law of Telecommunications,'' Angelo Rivero Santos, head of the business section in the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington, D.C., said via e-mail.

`NOTHING BUT THEATER'

Rivero Santos added that due process has been respected during the case against the station: ``Attempts to portray the station as a victim are nothing but theater.''

Asked if Globovisión was really at risk of closure and if that would be a violation of freedom of speech, Rivero Santos said:``The question is a supposition. The important thing here is that, like in any other country, people must abide by the law. No one is above the law.

At a travel agency counter, next to a Don Pan Venezuelan bakery in Doral, Gabriel Boracchi, 28, pledged the equivalent of $400 to Globovisión as he purchased a ticket to Caracas.

''Since I've been here I've seen the decay of the press,'' said Boracchi, who arrived in Miami in 1996. ``First, they shut down RCTV, now Globovisión. A country without freedom is at the mercy of any despot.''