Drums roll, the music swells, and the camera zooms in on a man seated behind a desk. His face is sombre for there are grim tidings to report.
Venezuela is in crisis. Inflation is soaring. There are acute shortages of milk, eggs and meat. Violent crime is taking more than 100 lives every week. The government is in chaos. Corruption is draining the country's oil wealth. These are the bulletins of Radio Caracas Television, the country's most influential private network. The theme is consistent: President Hugo Chavez is leading the country to ruin and if he is not stopped Venezuela will become a Cuba-style dictatorship.
OFF THE AIR
At midnight on Sunday, however, RCTV will be stopped. Its bleak bulletins silenced because the government is refusing to renew its broadcast license. Critics say an authoritarian hammer is crushing free speech and what is left of Venezuela's democracy. Supporters say the government is right to replace a channel notorious for lies, manipulation and anti-Chavez propaganda.
Tens of thousands of people marched in two rival rallies at Caracas last week, one mourning the decision, the other celebrating. More are expected this week and the volume of international protest — and praise — is set to swell.
NO REPRIEVE
None of it will alter the decision, Chavez recently said.
"It's over," he said.
His opponents cannot save RCTV, he added.
"Say what they say, do what they do, howl where they want, the license will not be renewed," he said.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
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Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
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