:nation

||| MEDIA. Minister decries “arrogant and ridiculous” report

IPS is under attack

||| El Aissami said few people cared about the IPS, and they’d heard it all before. ||| A string of Venezuelan media executives told the conference about “authoritarianism,” “impunity” and the president’s influence on other countries in the region. ||| The king of Spain was diplomatic.
  

Jeremy Morgan | DJ Staff

Interior and Justice Minister Tarek El Aissami rounded on the InterAmerican Press Society (IPS) for issuing a report warning that the work of journalists was becoming "ever more dangerous" in Venezuela.
The people behind the report were "arrogant and ridiculous" for having interfered in the internal affairs of Venezuela, the minister said. Few people were worried about IPS statements or cared whether or not it sent representatives to the country, he claimed, "because we're already used to these pronouncements."
Reports from the IPS conference in Madrid said Venezuela was the only country in which the situation of the media was specifically discussed. This was even though the Venezuelan delegation was small, but perhaps because they were heavily weighted towards the media far from sympathetic to President Hugo Chávez.
The government is deemed to have turned its back on the meeting, arguing that the IPS is riddled with "imperialist" influences – for which, read Washington – and bosses sympathetic to the United States. But the upshot of that was there were few to counter a chorus of criticism.
Miguel Henrique Otero, editor of El Nacional, pointed to the regional elections, warning that "authoritarianism" would become more pronounced as the vote approached.
Urging the IPS to remain vigilant, Otero said it would probably send a delegation to Venezuela during the elections for state governors and legislators and municipal authorities scheduled for Nov. 23.
Otero was dismissive about a recent string of government claims about a supposed plot to assassinate Chávez and stage a coup d'etat. These were a "mechanism that dictatorships use," he said, and the reality was that the people saw similarities between the situation in Venezuela and dictatorships which felt threatened and rejected by public opinion.

“The violence, insecurity and impunity without precedent have made Caracas the capital with most murders in Latin America.”

David Natera, editor of another Venezuelan daily, Correo del Caroní, said: "The violence, insecurity and impunity without precedent have made Caracas the capital with most murders in Latin America."
Alberto Federico Ravell, head of the private sector channel Globovisión – which makes no secret of its distaste for and distrust of the government – said there was more awareness every day about what was happening in Venezuela. He attacked Chávez as a "malign anti-media influence" on other nations in Latin America.
The "bad example of our president" in dealing with the media was being copied in Ecuador, Bolivia and Nicaragua, Ravell said. The presidents of all three countries – Rafael Correa, Evo Morales and Daniel Ortega, respectively – are close allies of Chávez' attempt to forge a new bloc against U.S. power in the region.
In a speech to the conference, King Juan Carlos of Spain, who had a famed run-in with Chávez lauded freedom of speech as "one of the greatest achievements of democracy which in many places still demands great sacrifices." As was to be expected, His Majesty was not reported to have made mention of Venezuela or any other country. |||

||| STUDENTS. Demand explanations from former minister

Soto probe ‘moving ahead’

Jeremy Morgan | DJ Staff

Attorney General Luisa Ortega Díaz said the investigation into the murder of opposition-aligned student leader Julio Soto was progressing but wouldn't answer questions about speculation that he possessed fat bank accounts.
Officials were focusing on the death and determining who was responsible for killing Soto, Ortega Díaz explained.
"If other things that could be construed as a punishable fact emerge, the State Prosecutors Office will make it known," she added.
Soto, president of the Federation of University Centers (FCU) in Zulia state and an activist in the opposition Social Christian party, Copei, was ambushed and shot dead on the afternoon of Oct. 1.
Police have aired the idea that the murder was a contract killing, but have yet to come up with an explanation of who might have wanted him dead, or why.
The murder has sparked demands from the student body for the case to be resolved quickly and fully. Former education minister, brother of the president and candidate for Barinas state governor Adán Chávez ran into a different sort of ambush Monday, with no cost to life or limb.
Students at a university barracked him for 40 minutes lousy transport, meals and, apparently, some of the teaching staff. |||

City Life: All in a cop’s day’s work

Jeremy Morgan | DJ Staff

A National Assembly (AN) legislator got extremely snitty with two Chacao municipal police officers and ended in handcuffs putting quite a lot of people to quite a lot of bother early Sunday morning before he was let go.
The parliamentarian was Freddy Esteban Rojas Vargas, 32, an "alternate" who substitutes for Deputy Reinaldo García, head of the human rights committee at the legislature.
It was just before six o'clock when Rojas Vargas, being driven by his wife from a party, came across a Polichacao patrol car on Avenida Andrés Bello near San Bernadino, northwest Caracas. He shouted vulgarities at them, demanding to know what they were doing outside their bailiwick.
Actually, they were going about their business, on their way to the Interior and Justice Ministry on Avenida Urdaneta to deliver a routine report on the last 24 hours, as required by regulations. Concluding that their verbal assailant was sozzled, they pressed on.
Once there, García's car also turned up. Police say he got out, still shouting but now with a pistol, which it's alleged he pointed in the face of an officer. At that point, as it was later said, the officer applied "arrest techniques and levels of force practiced in training," and García was quickly back under control. It then emerged he wasn't carrying an identity document (that's against the law), nor had a permit for the gun (extra ditto). On went the handcuffs. The cops sought help from the Ministry, the Metropolitan Police (PM) and Libertador municipal police, all to no avail. So they took García back to their own headquarters in Chacao.
He'd been allowed to use his cellular telephone. A prosecutor turned up to ensure Rojas Vargas' rights. So did the Public Defender, Deputy García and his colleague, Desirée Santos Amaral. García's wife later claimed the police started it and twisted his arm.