Cadena-o-meter
In the last 15 years, the cadena nacional has become part of the daily programming in free-to-air radio and television. This year more so, what with the situation regarding the health of the Hugo Chávez, his passing, the week of mourning that followed, the 14-A and 8-D elections, and of course the first eight and a half months of the Maduro presidency.
According to this report by Valencia’s El Carabobeño, there were 202 cadenas in 2013, making it the third year with most mandatory broadcasts (almost matching 2005’s number of 215 but way behind record-holder year 2004’s of 374). The count included both the work of Monitoreo Ciudadano, a joint project of several NGOs and the paper itself.
The catch is that Mr. Maduro seems to enjoy the chance of being live on the airwaves almost every single day: in November (seven months after he took office), he surpassed Chavez by more than twelve hours. And thanks to the new budget assigned for special broadcasts (39,5 million Bs.F.), he can even do two cadenas per day. Because hegemony.
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