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Activists brace for showdown with Chavez over RCTV

Angry Venezuelan protesters and journalists yesterday headed for a showdown with the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, which was about to take over the country's largest private television station.

RCTV was set to end its broadcasts at midnight yesterday after the government refused to renew its license.

But employees have vowed to continued to occupy the studios overnight, possibly to hinder their handover to the government today.

"A lot of us will sleep here in the station," news director Manuel Gago said.

"This is Venezuela, not Cuba!" protesters chanted, rallying outside RCTV studios on Saturday. "We have what it takes to fight!"

The rally was reminiscent of protests that led to Chavez's two-day ouster in a 2002 coup, for which he partly blames RCTV.

Chavez vowed soon after he was re-elected late last year to close the station down.

"The decision was mine," to close it, he said, calling its steamy soaps "a danger for the country, for boys, for girls."

Chavez asked Venezuelans for calm during a speech in Barquisimeto, 300km west of the capital and warned of a tough response from the military if the protests turn violent.

"Venezuelan armed forces are ready," Chavez said. "Anyone generating violence will regret it."

Telecommunications Minister Jesse Chacon said the station's staff "know that the license has run out and should by now have taken measures."

Today Chavez will relaunch the channel as a public service station, with US$4 million in start-up money. Then the government will control two of the four nationwide channels.

Venezuelan journalists and international human-rights advocates criticized the move, as did Peruvian President Alan Garcia.

"We respect freedom of expression and of the press ... which we feel are the oxygen of democracy," he said.

The broadcaster has filed charges on Saturday with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the Organization of American States.

"We have filed suit before the commission against Venezuela for violating the freedom of speech," RCTV vice president Oswaldo Quintana said.
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