Caracas Chronicles

“We have to stick to legality and institutionality. We have to inform that Nicolás Maduro is the President of Venezuela.” These are the instructions that Magno Barro, radio host of WakaNoticias, a local media outlet in the Amazonas state in the south of Venezuela, received after the results of the presidential elections.

While the streets of the country are full of people calling fraud and with opposition leaders Edmundo González Urrutia and Maria Corina Machado showing the tallies that demonstrate their victory, The National Telecommunications Commission (Conatel), the state agency responsible for regulating, supervising, and controlling telecommunications is giving direct orders to radio stations to maintain an editorial posture that prohibits the transmission of news that they consider “violates elements classified as violence.”

Even though this is communicated via WhatsApp, this entity is calling directly to the owners and producers of media outlets to specifically mandate that they can’t report nothing related to Machado, González, protests or the data from NGOs that reveal deaths, injuries, and arbitrary detentions by security forces and colectivos. According to local NGOs and media, 19 people were killed in the context of protest, and 711 have been victims of arbitrary detentions and 119 of enforced disappearance.

Venezuela already lives in an information desert. 

Four hundred media outlets, including print media, radio, TV channels, and digital platforms in Venezuela, have been shut down by the government in the last 20 years, according to Espacio Publico, an NGO that promotes and defends freedom of expression in the country.

The few left are now being threatened.

“‘I decided I couldn’t keep my program on those terms,” said Barro, who started WakaNoticias in 2015. Part of the dynamic of his two-hour program was to receive calls from the community. The last one, on Tuesday the 30th, two days after the National Electoral Council (CNE) proclaimed Maduro as president, a woman said over the phone that Venezuelans were “robbed.”

“They told me I couldn’t say that Edmundo achieved a victory with 70% of the votes. Since Monday, there have been a lot of protests in Puerto Ayacucho (the capital of Amazonas state), and I was publishing live on social media. I did a summary on my program, and the reaction was to cut me off,” said Barro.

Amazonas is one of the poorest states in Venezuela, where the people have been victims of the violence of armed groups and illegal mining. The results in this state show Edmundo González Urrutia as the winner of the presidential elections with 60% of the votes, according to the tallies published by the opposition. 

The last radio show on air

Zulay Carrillo didn’t know that her live transmission on July 25th was going to be the last one of Noticias Calabozo Radio, a news program that she co-hosted with Aixta Pérez since 2022, from Calabozo, a city in Guárico State.

In her case, she didn’t even receive any instructions. Her show was shut down on the same day of the elections (July 28th). “The threat from Conatel was to shut down the whole radio station if they didn’t cut my program. So I received a call that our show was over. We couldn’t even say goodbye to our audience.”

Since early in the morning, Zulay was reporting on the electoral atmosphere, where many incidents occurred, such as delays in the opening of the voting centers and the military’s refusal to allow the entry of polling station witnesses.

Just like in the rest of the country, people in various cities of Guárico are protesting and demanding transparent results from the CNE. Fundehullan, an NGO that promotes human rights in the Llanos region of Venezuela, reported 17 arbitrary detentions that occurred in this state after the elections, between July 29th and 31st.

Marianela Balbi, the executive director of Ipys Venezuela, said that these patterns correspond to the censorship they have observed. “We are seeing a pattern of criminalization of journalists. Any image related to protest coverage is considered an incitement to violence and labeled as terrorism”. 

In the meantime, music 

The radio stations of Ciudad Guayana, in the south of the country, play only music since Sunday, July 28. Journalists and radio presenters report that the same pattern occurs in Zulia, Carabobo, Falcón, Barinas, Monagas and Delta Amacuro.

According to journalists interviewed for this report, news programs and entertainment shows with news segments were suspended, while others were forced to practice self-censorship to avoid repercussions.

For example, a radio station of Paraguaná, Falcón, published on their social media that for their “own safety and protection of their physical integrity” they are suspending their live broadcast. 

“They ordered us to be silent; it is not allowed to report on what’s happening in Falcón,” a Falconian journalist explained.  

The same happened in states like Zulia and Carabobo. Radio hosts from this area of the country revealed to this report that Conatel ordered them to “moderate their language”. One director of a radio station in Carabobo, who gave an anonymous interview for safety reasons, said that Conatel specifically mentioned that 150 radio stations are under investigation and that “he better be careful if he doesn’t want to be part of that list”.

Music, sports or entertainment news is the only information allowed by Conatel on days after the elections. All news or opinion shows are suspended. In Carabobo, according to the Press and Society Institute (Ipys), twelve journalists were victims of a stigmatization campaign through WhatsApp messages, which criminalizes their informative work on the protests in the region. 

“Since Monday, no programs have been aired on La Mega, Onda, or Éxitos. They (the directors) sent a message today stating that only entertainment, music, and sports programs will be broadcast tomorrow. The news programs are still on hold, and there can be no discussion of elections,” said a radio host in Guayana City.

In this case, Denis Cabeza from Conatel Bolivar signed the message sent via WhatsApp to all the radio station directors in the state. A different Conatel representative from each state was responsible for sending the communication. For example, in Monagas, it was Rosalva Teresen. Journalists from this region also confirm that there are no news programs or opinion shows on the media outlets.. 

Other radio hosts from the few news programs that remain in Guayana City feel they are over Conatel’s gaze. “These orders are not new. We also received them in 2017. It was the same thing”. In that year, Venezuelans protested for more than three months all over the country.

Part of this system of persecution involves Chavista governors. Julio León Heredia, Governor of Yaracuy, attacked the digital media outlet “Aquí te lo contamos” for reporting on the protests. Additionally, the Governor of Bolivar state, Ángel Marcano, threatened to apply “the full weight of the law” to those who incite violence, “not only those on the battlefield but also through the media and social media.” The National College of Journalists of Venezuela denounced that the digital media outlet “Última Hora” in Portuguesa suspended its operations after threats from the Governor of that state, Primitivo Cedeño.

Arrests and intimidation 

The persecution of press workers throughout the country accompanies the radio silence. The National Union of Press Workers (SNTP), the Press and Society Institute (Ipys), and Espacio Público, three organizations defending freedom of expression in Venezuela, have collected reports showing an escalation of repression:

• Shots: in Trujillo, colectivos shot at the residence of journalist Alexander González, of Diario Los Andes and Unión Radio. 
• Wounded: Jesús Romero, director of the Código Urbe portal, was shot in the abdomen by members of the Bolivarian National Guard (GNB). He was covering a demonstration on Monday in Maracay (Aragua). 
• Online threats: The correspondent of Channel I in Sucre state, Dreully Barrios, is being investigated by pro-government supporters for her coverage of the protests. In Carabobo, a discrediting campaign is circulating through Whatsapp messages, with photos of 12 journalists from the region. 
• Arrest warrants: the content creator, Francisco Lunar, warned that the mayor of Guanta, Natali Bello, issued an arrest warrant against him for publishing images of street demonstrations. 

At least six reporters have been detained, according to the SNTP balance. 

Maduro also wants to hide from the rest of the world what is happening. International correspondents have been detained, threatened, and deported. On the morning of this Friday, August 2nd, the Chilean media outlet TVN reported that two of its journalists were detained and are awaiting their impending deportation. According to Balbi, at least six journalists have been deported since the day of the election.