Venezuela’s Globovision Chief Held for Chavez Insult

Venezuelan authorities detained the president of opposition television network Globovision today for comments he made about President Hugo Chavez and on concern that he might flee the country, the attorney general said.

Guillermo Zuloaga, the president of the network, was stopped from leaving a regional airport today in his private plane and flown back to Caracas to face arraignment, Attorney General Luisa Ortega Diaz said. Zuloaga made “offensive and disrespectful” comments about Chavez during an international conference last week, Diaz said.

Chavez has threatened to close Globovision, Venezuela’s only opposition network, during his 11 years in power using the argument that it supported a 2002 coup against him and creates “unrest” in the population. Chavez refused to renew the broadcasting license for opposition network RCTV in 2007 and closed 32 radio stations, citing administrative violations.

The incident follows the arrest of opposition politician Oswaldo Alvarez Paz on March 22 after he said that Venezuela had become a “haven” for drug trafficking.

“We have to make sure that he doesn’t leave the country to face any possible trial,” Diaz said in an interview today on Venevision. “He made offensive and disrespectful comments about the head of state and there was reason to believe that he was going to flee the country.”