VENEZUELA: Opposition TV Channel Comfortable Blasting Chavez With Slanted Coverage; Chavez Threatens Takeover.

LATIMES/ Mery Mogollon and Chris Kraul/

    "From the time it goes on the air until it signs off, Globovision lets Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez have it with both barrels. The Caracas-based opposition news and opinion channel's newsreaders and reporters — who make no pretense of impartiality and remain undeterred by harassment and threats of a takeover — regularly blast the president with obviously slanted coverage while giving opposition politicians free and usually unchallenged rein to vent."
AND..."But Chavez, with some justification, says the station spreads calumny about him. He has filed numerous charges against its owners that include hoarding, defamation and tax evasion. Chavez is sending clear signals that he may take control of Globovision, asserting in a recent televised address that the government was entitled to a near-majority of stock in the channel's holding company because of one major shareholder's financial problems and the death of another, which Chavez contends should result in the stock reverting to the government."

VENEZUELA: 1ST UPDATE: Chavez Takes Over Private Bank; Threatens More Assets.

                                    AP/MIAMI HERALD/UPDATE: 17 June/
The government took over management of the private bank Banco Federal after discovering what it called "serious financial" problems. Bank owner Nelson Mezerhane now in the United States condemned the takeover as retribution against him and the critical TV station Globovision he helped found. Banco Federal is Venezuela's eighth-largest bank with about 2.8% of market share. Customers lined up outside some branches Monday to withdraw money before the shutdown took effect. In the last seven months, about a dozen small banks have been seized. Now about 30% of the banking sector is under government control.
Chavez has also threatened to seize Mezerhane's assets including his minority ownership stake in the Globovision TV channel." He should get on a plane to come show his face," Chavez said.

VENEZUELA: 1ST UPDATE: TV Boss & Chavez Critic Sought For Arrest.

LINK CHANGE/UPDATE/ AP/
MIAMI HERALD/ 15 June/
   Prosecutors are still looking for Guillermo Zuloaga, head of the Globovision channel and a vocal critic of President Hugo Chavez, to arrest him for "business irregularities." A warrant has also been issued for his son.
"We are seriously concerned in Venezuela about the arrest order for Guillermo Zuloaga," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said Monday in Washington. "This is the latest example of the government of Venezuela's continuing assault on the freedom of the press."

VENEZUELA: 2ND UPDATE: Chavez Defends Arrest of Critical TV Owner For "Offensive" Remarks.

AP/MIAMI HERALD/ 27 MARZO UPDATE/    President Hugo Chavez is defending the recent arrest of Guillermo Zuloaga, owner of the TV channel Globovision, for remarks deemed "offensive" to Chavez. Zuloaga allegedly criticized the Chavez government for limiting freedom of expression at a meeting of media executives in Aruba.  Authorities released Zuloaga and prohibited him from leaving the country. Chavez calls him a criminal and denied the government is carrying out an assault on press freedom.

In A Surprize, Chavez Turns On Hardline Supporter.

From the LAHT.

Chavez condemned an attack on a TV station – in which two people were injured – as “counter-revolutionary” for having “played the enemy’s game.” He said the “full weight of the law” would be brought against the woman leader for what had happened.