Chavez steps up threats against Venezuelan TV channel, calling owners criminals

Chavez steps up threats against TV channel

CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez stepped up his threats against Venezuela’s sole opposition-aligned television channel Friday, saying its exiled owners are trying to destabilize his government and he won’t tolerate it.

Chavez called Globovision’s majority owner Guillermo Zuloaga and minority shareholder Nelson Mezerhane fugitive criminals and said he will wait for a while to see if they return to face accusations against them.

If they don’t, Chavez said, “we’ll have to think to see what’s going to happen to that channel.”

The government has taken over a bank owned by Mezerhane, Banco Federal, saying regulators detected financial problems. And Chavez has warned that as authorities seize assets to cover deposits, they could go after Mezerhane’s stake in Globovision.

He went further on Friday, asking: “How much could Globovision cost?”

“It doesn’t amount to even 1 percent of all that money its owners took away,” Chavez said. “They took a very large sum of money.”

Attorney General Luisa Ortega said Thursday that a court had ordered Mezerhane’s arrest for alleged irregularities in his group of companies. She said authorities believe he took depositors’ money out of the country.

Chavez mockingly suggested the channel’s owners could come to the presidential palace to discuss the predicament over coffee.

Mezerhane, who was in Florida at the time of the bank takeover last month, has called the case political retribution and said he has no plans to return to the country for now. Mezerhane did not immediately respond to the latest accusations by Chavez.

Zuloaga disappeared last month after a court issued an arrest warrant for him and one of his sons. Associates said he left the country, though they didn’t say where he went.

Prosecutors want Zuloaga jailed while he awaits trial on charges of usury and conspiracy for keeping 24 new vehicles stored at a home he owns. Zuloaga, who also owns several car dealerships, has called the charges bogus and says prosecutors are carrying out a political vendetta on Chavez’s orders.

Chavez has often accused Globovision of conspiring against him and trying to undermine his government. He denies holding sway over prosecutors who have brought charges against Zuloaga, or over officials who seized control of the bank.

Globovision has been the only stridently anti-Chavez channel on the air since another opposition-aligned channel, RCTV, was forced off cable and satellite TV in January. RCTV had been booted off the open airwaves in 2007.

Globovision has recently been airing critical coverage of a scandal involving thousands of tons of food found beyond expiration dates and rotting in government storage.

Chavez said station managers “are trying to destabilize the country, following instructions from their fugitive, hidden owners.”

“We aren’t going to permit it,” Chavez said.