[House Hearing, 111 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office]
PRESS FREEDOM IN THE AMERICAS
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON
THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
JUNE 16, 2010
__________
Serial No. 111-103
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
[GRAPHIC(S)] [NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/
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COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
HOWARD L. BERMAN, California, Chairman
GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida
ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey
Samoa DAN BURTON, Indiana
DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey ELTON GALLEGLY, California
BRAD SHERMAN, California DANA ROHRABACHER, California
ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois
BILL DELAHUNT, Massachusetts EDWARD R. ROYCE, California
GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York RON PAUL, Texas
DIANE E. WATSON, California JEFF FLAKE, Arizona
RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri MIKE PENCE, Indiana
ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey JOE WILSON, South Carolina
GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas
MICHAEL E. McMAHON, New York J. GRESHAM BARRETT, South Carolina
THEODORE E. DEUTCH, CONNIE MACK, Florida
Florida JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska
MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas
JOHN S. TANNER, Tennessee TED POE, Texas
GENE GREEN, Texas BOB INGLIS, South Carolina
LYNN WOOLSEY, California GUS BILIRAKIS, Florida
SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas
BARBARA LEE, California
SHELLEY BERKLEY, Nevada
JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York
MIKE ROSS, Arkansas
BRAD MILLER, North Carolina
DAVID SCOTT, Georgia
JIM COSTA, California
KEITH ELLISON, Minnesota
GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, Arizona
RON KLEIN, Florida
Richard J. Kessler, Staff Director
Yleem Poblete, Republican Staff Director
------
Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere
ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York, Chairman
GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York CONNIE MACK, Florida
ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas
GENE GREEN, Texas CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey
GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, Arizona DAN BURTON, Indiana
ENI F. H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American ELTON GALLEGLY, California
Samoa RON PAUL, Texas
DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska
JOHN S. TANNER, Tennessee GUS BILIRAKIS, Florida
BARBARA LEE, California
JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York
RON KLEIN, Florida
C O N T E N T S
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Page
WITNESSES
Mr. Joel Simon, Executive Director, Committee to Protect
Journalists.................................................... 9
Mr. Marcel Granier, President and Director General, Radio Caracas
Television Internacional (RCTV)................................ 14
Alejandra Nuno, J.D., Program Director for Central America and
Mexico, Center for Justice and International Law............... 15
Mr. Eduardo Enriquez, Managing Editor, La Prensa................. 25
Mr. Alejandro Aguirre, President, Inter American Press
Association, Deputy Editor and Publisher, Diario Las Americas.. 32
LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING
The Honorable Eliot L. Engel, a Representative in Congress from
the State of New York, and Chairman, Subcommittee on the
Western Hemisphere: Prepared statement......................... 7
Mr. Joel Simon: Prepared statement............................... 11
Alejandra Nuno, J.D.: Prepared statement......................... 18
Mr. Eduardo Enriquez: Prepared statement......................... 27
Mr. Alejandro Aguirre: Prepared statement........................ 34
APPENDIX
Hearing notice................................................... 48
Hearing minutes.................................................. 50
The Honorable Eni F.H. Faleomavaega, a Representative in Congress
from American Samoa: Prepared statement........................ 51
Written responses from Mr. Joel Simon to questions submitted for
the record by the Honorable Eliot L. Engel..................... 54
PRESS FREEDOM IN THE AMERICAS
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WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16, 2010
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere,
Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:23 p.m. in
room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, the Honorable Eliot
L. Engel, (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Mr. Engel. Good afternoon. On World Press Freedom Day last
month, President Obama brought attention to an issue that far
too often goes unnoticed. He said that ``last year was a bad
one for the freedom of the press worldwide'' and ``more media
workers were killed for their work last year than any year in
recent history.''
Unfortunately, this is particularly true here in the
Americas where press freedom has been deteriorating over the
past few years. I called today's briefing and hearing to shed
light on this disturbing trend.
When nine journalists are murdered in Honduras in 5\1/2\
months making the small country the most dangerous one for
journalists in the hemisphere, or when Mexico's drug cartels
brutally murder members of the press for reporting on the drug
trade, we cannot sit idly by.
When Venezuelan President Hugh Chavez shuts down opposition
TV and radio stations and intimidates journalists and media
owners who express dissent, we all have a responsibility to
speak out.
And certainly, we must continue to shed light on the stark
state of the press in Cuba--a country with one of the worst
media environments in the world where 25 of the estimated 200
political prisoners are independent journalists.
These are just a few of the most troubling examples of the
breakdown in press freedom that we see in the Americas, and I
hope that we will have a chance to examine these trends more
closely.
While most of us in the Inter-American community are quick
to speak out when electoral democracy is in peril, we sometimes
neglect to raise up our voices when other fundamental aspects
of democracy are at risk, including the free and independent
press.
Yet, in reading the Inter-American Democratic Charter--a
charter agreed to on September 11, 2001 by every country in the
hemisphere except Cuba--we understand that democracy is about
much more than just elections. Of course, free and fair
elections are essential. But, the Inter-American Democratic
Charter must also be utilized to ensure that fundamental
freedoms and democratic norms are safeguarded. This means that
we must speak out when the press is under attack in the
hemisphere as freedom of the press is as essential tenet in any
democracy.
I am particularly pleased to welcome OAS Special Rapporteur
for Freedom of Expression, Catalina Botero who will brief the
committee prior to our hearing. Ms. Botero, your office does
tremendous work in highlighting the breakdowns in press freedom
in this hemisphere and we all look forward to hearing from you.
And after the briefing is over I will introduce our hearing
witnesses.
So I thank you and I am now pleased to call on Ranking
Member Mack for his opening statement.
Mr. Mack. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
First, I would like to thank your witnesses for being here
to share their experiences and insight, especially our
international guests who have made special arrangements to
appear before us today.
As a congressman in the United States, it is hard for me to
imagine living without the freedom to speak freely and express
my individual beliefs and those of my constituents. Freedom of
expression is a cornerstone of democracy. The establishment of
free press, one that provides oversight to government
activities by disseminating information to citizens, is
essential to a functioning democratic society.
Less than 90 miles off the coast of my home state of
Florida the people of Cuba lack these basic rights and continue
to suffer under the iron-fisted regime of the Castro brothers.
As we speak, Allen Gross, a U.S. citizen, is being held without
charges at a high-security Cuban prison where he has been for
over 6 months. His only crime--providing Internet access to the
Jewish community living on the isolated island.
Mr. Chairman, it is also necessary to draw attention to the
continuing deterioration of press freedom in Venezuela which
you just spoke about as well. Last Friday, the president of
Globovision, a well-known opposition television station, was
issued an arrest warrant for trumped-up charges generated after
a 2009 raid of his residence. This is the second of such arrest
warrants he has received this year, and he is not alone.
The Government of Venezuela does not stop at arresting
individuals who express contrary opinions. It works tirelessly
to eliminate these opinions entirely.
This past January the Government of Venezuela completely
shutdown the Venezuela TV Station RCTV, finally achieving a
goal it began in 2007. Today, I call on President Hugo Chavez
to allow for free and fair legislative elections in September
by removing the government's interference in the media and
stopping the intimidation of opposition voices.
In addition to these severe cases of repression in Cuba and
in Venezuela, countries throughout the Western Hemisphere
continue to witness diverse threats to press freedom. Such
treats occur through nationalization of the media outlets; the
enactment of laws to restrict media freedom; recently seen in
Argentina and Ecuador lax prosecution on behalf of the
government in media intimidation cases; and direct government
harassment of reporters and journalists.
Given the levels of press freedom often act as an
indication of the broader trend of political and social
freedoms within a country. We must take into consideration the
other factors that play within these countries. For example, in
Mexico, Guatemala and El Salvador, attacks on journalists are
regularly tied to the reporting on drug trafficking
organizations and criminal gangs.
As we work with governments in the region to be more
vigilant in their prosecution of crimes targeting journalists
and the media, it is important that we address the role of
these criminal organizations. It is also critical that we
recognize the vast improvements made in some countries such as
Colombia.
As we hear from our witnesses today, I will be looking for
ways to expand upon such progress in our hemisphere and to
ensure that the recent trends in Honduras and Venezuela do not
become the norm. I would also like to discuss the role of new
media in the effort to ensure continued access to free media
sources.
When I hear of the courageous blogger in Cuba who against
all odds continue to tell their story to the outside world, I
am confident that technological innovations has the power to
stifle government efforts to intimidate and shut out
opposition.
I look forward to the discussion, Mr. Chairman, today. I
look forward to hearing from our witnesses, and I want to thank
everyone for being here. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Engel. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Mack, and now for
an opening statement, Mr. Sires.
Mr. Sires. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding today's
hearing.
Freedom of the press should be a critical requirement for
the development and stability of a democratic nation. It offers
citizens greater opportunities to inform themselves, express
their personal views, and empower them to pursue social
justice. Without it, no country can truly enjoy the benefits of
a vibrant democracy. Journalists who report in some countries
in the Hemisphere face increasing volatile and dangerous
conditions where they not only face dire threats to their
personal security from gangs and organized crime groups, but
also face government intimidation and the continuous rollback
of press freedoms.
In Latin America and the Caribbean, Freedom House has
characterized Cuba and Venezuela as not free. The government
and its leaders continue to undermine democracy as they
suppress freedoms on a daily basis by closing the media outlets
that don't conform to their beliefs and imprisoning innocent
reporters.
Today in Cuba 22 journalists are in prison. In a ranking of
countries with the most jailed journalists, Cuba was ranked
third, just under China and Iran. Similarly, Venezuela faces
extensive censorship of both media and press. Freedom of speech
and the press while constitutionally guaranteed has been
increasingly eroded with numerous restrictions. Due to these
restrictions, we have already seen the closing of numerous
radio stations and RC TV. Additionally, the Venezuelan regime
continue to harass journalists to the point that self-
censorship is the only option to avoid serious danger.
Additionally, many countries, including Mexico, Colombia,
Guatemala, face increased self-censorship of the media when
covering stories relating to organized crime. We must continue
to support and protect the work of journalists in the region
and decrease the power criminal organizations have over freedom
of information. Freedom of the press is a fundamental right
that all countries should respect.
I thank Ms. Marino for her briefing and I thank the
chairman for holding this hearing.
Mr. Engel. Thank you, Mr. Sires, and now for an opening
statement, Mr. Smith.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and Ranking
Member for scheduling this very important hearing.
Article 13 of the American Convention for Human Rights
clearly states that,
``Everyone has the right to freedom of thought and
expression, this writing includes freedom to seek,
receive, and impart information and ideas of all kinds
regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing, in
the print, in the form of art, or through any other
medium of one's choice, and most importantly, that this
right shall not be subject to prior censorship.''
Mr. Chairman, it is not an overstatement to say that
freedom, the freedom of any people depends upon the freedom of
the press, and yet in a number of the countries in our
hemisphere the press is not free and journalists are targeted
for harassment, beatings, and frequently murdered. Those slain
have often crossed local officials and their private sector
cronies by uncovering corruption or investigating human rights
abuses by their governments. Some have just dared to criticize
their government.
Through action or inaction, impunity or censorship, Mexico,
Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Honduras, in particular, have been
forgetting their obligations under Article 13, and the basic
necessity of a free press to a healthy nation. Cuba, in its
paranoid grip on its citizens, has been imprisoning and
torturing journalists for decades.
Mr. Chairman, journalists are also affected by the sad
trend of recent years, to transform the Internet into a tool of
censorship and surveillance. With the Internet has come new
power for the people to share information and hold power to
account, and thus a new target for the abuse by those who hold
power.
Formerly oppressed and silent groups have used this new
media to their advantage, El National reported that in August
2009, Hugo Chavez dubbed twitter a new agent of terror after a
massive turn of tweets under the tag ``free media VA,''
criticized his government for censoring the Venezuelan media,
and Chavez has been openly contemplating censorship and
control, probably with the held, as we are seeing all over the
world, including in Belarus, with the help of the Chinese cyber
police who have perfected worst practices on how to control any
dissidents in their country.
Mr. Chairman, we do have a bill pending in this committee,
I am the sponsor, called the ``Global Online Freedom Act''
backed by virtually every human rights organization, including
Reporters Without Borders, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty
International, Freedom House, and even Google. It requires our
IT companies when they are in an Internet-repressive country to
disclose what it is they are censoring and to put beyond reach
of a secret police personally identifiable information so that
when somebody goes on line and they perhaps use e-mail, that e-
mail is not intercepted by the secret police to find them,
apprehend them, and then incarcerate them, especially as they
do in the PRC.
I hope that we can take a look at that bill sometime very
soon before this Congress completes its sitting because we need
to help those w ho want to use the Internet as an opening
rather than what it is becoming in some of these countries as a
tool of repression.
I yield back and thank you.
Mr. Engel. Thank you, Mr. Smith. Now we have been joined by
Mr. Rohrabacher. I call on him for an opening statement.
Mr. Rohrabacher. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
I take special interest in this, particularly over emphasis
on human rights, because unlike many of my colleagues here in
the United States Congress I am not a lawyer. In fact, that was
the first most--that really was my strongest political slogan
in my first campaign, ``Vote for Dana, at least he is not a
lawyer.''
So how did I earn my living? I was a writer, and I started
out as a journalist in southern California off and on for about
10 years before I joined Ronald Reagan in his efforts to become
President, and he took me to the White House and I became a
speech writer for a number of years.
However, I never forgot my days as a journalist and I never
forgot the dynamics that are at play at getting information to
the people of this country, and how important that has been to
our freedom, and if we do stand for freedom and democracy, we
must understand that in none of these societies, especially in
the Western Hemisphere, will there be freedom and prosperity
unless we have a free press, unless people are able to ask
tough questions, and make serious investigations into people
who have power.
And I look at that both personally as well as
professionally, as well as I might say patriotically. That is
what America is supposed to be about. If the United States is
not for press and freedom and these other human rights, then
what are we about? Are we just a combination of people who came
here from all over the world in order to make money? I am
afraid that is not it. The people came here from all over the
world, yes, to live in prosperity, but essentially to live in
freedom which led to prosperity, and there will be no
prosperity without freedom and especially freedom of the press
because it will be overwhelmed as it is in China and elsewhere.
It will be overwhelmed by corruption.
For the record, a sort of tangential issue, I would just
like to express, Mr. Chairman, my disappointment that the
current President of Honduras has decided to give into whatever
pressures were put on him to suggest that he accepts the idea
of the transfer of power that happened leading up to his
election was in some way a coup rather than a protection of
constitutional rights by the Supreme Court and the military of
that country as well as the Parliament of Honduras.
Apparently he recently uttered the words, ``Yes, it was a
coup.'' And I am really worried what pressures caused this man
to do that. What threats were made on the President of
Honduras? Did our embassy threaten this?
In fact, when I was visiting Honduras, Mr. Chairman, I
suggested that the best thing for Honduras and everyone would
be to close the books, recognize there had been a free
election, and move on looking forward rather than looking back
and try to fight battles of the past. Obviously some people
have been putting pressure on President Lobo to do the
opposite, and I would hope that whether it is--whatever we are
talking about, whatever government we are talking about, we are
not talking about a fight against evil things in which we will
then seek vengeance on people who actually were engaged in
repressing reporters and things such as that.
What we want to do is build a free world and we have got to
enlist people who are on the other side, meaning people who are
on the side of the tyrants, to join in and to create a better
place, and you don't do that by just re-hashing everything that
happened in the past, but what we have to do is make sure in
the present everybody is on the record as to what direction we
want to go.
So this is a way to do it, this hearing; very proud to
stand with my fellow members, especially Chris Smith, we have
been fighting on human rights issues for 20 years together, and
this issue, freedom of press in this hemisphere is of utmost
importance because it will--it will ensure prosperity and peace
as well as freedom, so thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Engel. Thank you, Mr. Rohrabacher, and now it is my
pleasure to introduce Catalina Botero, the Special Rapporteur
for Freedom of Expression at the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights since 2008.
Ms. Botero previously held several prestigious positions in
Colombia. She served as an assistant judge with the
Constitutional Code of Colombia from 1995 to 2000, and again
from 2005 to 2008. As Special Rapporteur, we have all been
impressed by your willingness to constructively point out both
the deficits in press freedom in the region and the progress
made in certain countries.
I was particularly pleased by your recent annual report on
press freedom which provided an excellent summary of related
concerns in the hemisphere.
Ms. Botero, thank you for joining us today. The floor is
yours to brief members of the subcommittee.
[Recess.]
Mr. Engel. A quorum being present, the Subcommittee on the
Western Hemisphere will come to order. I have already delivered
my opening statement, but I would like to insert my statement
and all members' opening statements into the record, and
without objection I will do so.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Engel follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S)] [NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Engel. I am now pleased to introduce our distinguished
witnesses, and I ask them to take their seats. Joel Simon is
executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists
(CPJ). Marcel Granier is president and director general of
Radio Caracas Television International, better known to most of
us as RCTV. Alejandra Nuno is program director for Central
America and Mexico at the Center for Justice and International
Law, CEJIL. Next Eduardo Enriquez is managing editor of La
Prensa in Nicaragua, and last but certainly not least,
Alejandro Aguirre is president of the Inter American Press
Association, IAPA, and deputy editor and publisher of Diario
Las Americas.
Welcome to all of you. We appreciate it, and let me just
ask you to, each one of you to please--we will submit your
testimony into the record, if we could ask you to summarize
your testimony in 5 minutes, and I will keep a close tally. Mr.
Simon, we will start with you.
STATEMENT OF MR. JOEL SIMON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, COMMITTEE TO
PROTECT JOURNALISTS
Mr. Simon. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman and members of
the committee. I will do my best to be brief. I note that the
members of the committee are exceptionally well informed on
these issues based on their opening statements so you will
pardon me if I tread over some ground which has already been
raised by committee members.
What I really want to start out by pointing out is that I
have been in my position at CPJ for more than a decade. I
started out monitoring Latin America. I now have global
responsibilities as executive director, and what I have seen is
that while democracy has become firmly entrenched in much of
Latin America, the press continues to operate with few
institutional protections, and despite the strong tradition of
independent and critical media in so many countries in the
region, journalists are increasingly vulnerable to both
government repression and violence.
We are going to hear from witnesses in two countries,
Venezuela and Nicaragua, where governments are pursuing
effective strategies of marginalizing and even vilifying the
media while using control of government institutions, including
the judiciary, to carry out legal action against critics. We
published a very detailed report about the activities of
President Daniel Ortega, which I have entered into the record.
Ortega has set the tone in Nicaragua by calling journals ``sons
of Goebbels.'' Critics have faced punitive tax raids and
criminal defamation suits.
In Venezuela, President Chavez has employed a similar
strategy, vilifying the press while using politicized--
administrative procedures to force critical broadcasters off
the air. We have talked about Mr. Zuloaga. The AP is reporting
that he has now left Venezuela in order to avoid arrest.
Journalists in these countries face government harassment
and in other parts of the region the problem is government
neglect, and that is really the case in Mexico where the
situation is extremely dramatic. Thirty journalists have been
killed or disappeared since President Felipe Calderon came to
office. Most of these are local reporters covering drug
trafficking, crime or corruption, exactly as the Congressman
pointed out, and impunity in these cases is near complete, and
it is creating a pervasive culture of self-censorship, which is
having a devastating effect on the basic rights of freedom of
expression in Mexico.
I do want to point out, however, one case involving a U.S.
reporter, Brad Will, who was shot and killed in 2006 while
covering protests in Oaxaca, and there is a video of that
incident which appears to show a man later identified as a
member of the pro-government militia firing a weapon directly
at Will, and despite this very clear evidence no one has been
convicted in that killing.
We talked a little bit about Honduras. Seven journalists
have been killed there since the beginning of the year. That
has also been getting attention, and in regards to some of the
questions that have been asked here, we are carrying out a
detailed report. We have a person who just completed his
investigation and will be issuing a detailed report on the
nature of those killings shortly.
Colombia, we talked a little bit about Colombia. Colombia
has made some improvements in terms of reduction of violence. I
do want to point out one issue that has concerned us, which has
been mentioned, the adversarial relationship which President
Uribe has had with the press, and also a very distressing
scandal in which it was revealed that the DAS, which is the
national security agency, had been wire tapping political
opponents, magistrates, human rights activists, and
journalists. CPJ's own e-mails were intercepted.
Subsequently several senior DAS officials were arrested and
we met with President Uribe to discuss this issue, and he told
us ``Illegal spies are enemies of Colombia.''
I want to finally mention Cuba, far and away the most
repressive environment for the press in Latin America as
mentioned; one of the worst in the world. Twenty-two
journalists are in jail, ranked only behind Iran and China.
Now, there were some modest hopes at one time when Fidel Castro
stepped inside. We have not seen any changes in Cuba under Raul
Castro, I want to make that clear.
One thing I do want to mention in relation to the small
incipient blogging culture in Cuba. It has been officially
tolerated to a certain extent, and I do want to commend
President Obama for giving an e-mail interview to a Cuban
blogger, Yoani Sanchez, shortly after she was detained and
beaten by Cuban security agents in November. That was an
important gesture.
So I want to conclude just by saying that efforts by the
United States Government to protect and promote press freedom
are vital because we live in an information society. Those who
are deprived of basic information are, in essence,
marginalized. So the freedom to seek and receive information is
not only a human right in this era. It is a prerequisite to
full participation in the global economy, and that is why these
hearings today are so important. Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Simon follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S)] [NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Engel. Thank you very much, Mr. Simon. Mr. Granier.
STATEMENT OF MR. MARCEL GRANIER, PRESIDENT AND DIRECTOR
GENERAL, RADIO CARACAS TELEVISION INTERNACIONAL (RCTV)
Mr. Granier. Thank you, Mr. Engel, and members of the
subcommittee for this invitation to talk about things that
would not be broadcast in Venezuela nowadays because of the
censorship and the fear that exists over there.
You asked me is there freedom of expression in Venezuela,
my answer is no. Why do I say no? Because there are
consequences to what you say that you cannot control. The
judiciary power is fully controlled by the government. Most of
the judges in Venezuela are provisional, and therefore they can
be changed at will by the authorities.
The government also controls six television networks and
hundreds of radio stations that it uses in a very efficient and
political way: Not to inform people but to criminalize
everybody who dares have an opinion different to the government
or to the Presidents.
In the last 10 years, there have been about 150,000 murders
in Venezuela. That is ten times more than in the previous
period. Of those 150,000 homicides, only 3 percent have ended
with a conviction, and less than 10 percent have ever even been
brought to court. Therefore there are more than 140,000
homicides walking around in the streets of Venezuela.
Among those people murdered, there are more than 20
journalists or editors. What do they have in common? They were
covering issues regarding corruption in the government or
issues regarding drug trafficking and the involvement of high
officers in such drug trafficking. There is absolutely no
transparency in Venezuelan public affairs. For example, nobody
in Venezuela knows for sure how much oil do we produce, how
much does Venezuela have in reserves, and, of course, nobody
knows what is happening without those 140,000 murders that walk
freely in our streets.
There is no balance of powers. When the government decided
to shut RCTV down, we went to the Supreme Court of justice. We
have been waiting for 3 years for their decision. Nothing, no
answer at all. The second time when they shutdown RCTV
International there was not even a procedure. The just scared
off the cable and satellite providers and those companies,
private companies, some of them listed in the New York Stock
Exchange or in the European Stock Exchanges were so scared to
lose their privileges that they decided, okay, to take us off
the air without any kind of due process of right to defend
ourselves or anything similar to that.
There is no presumption of evidence. Mr. Zuloaga who you
mentioned awhile ago was first arrested without even a
procedure open against him. The procedure was open 3 hours
after he was arrested.
So what do I think of this situation? I think perhaps we
have the right to express ourselves but we don't have the right
to seek information of what we think is relevant. We have to
fear the consequences. We don't know what the consequences are
because they change the laws, they change the procedures.
Sometimes they act even before accusing you of anything.
We are also in fear of the Cuban intelligence services. In
Venezuela, which is a very unusual case, the immigration, the
identification systems are controlled by the Cubans under a
legal agreement that President Chavez signed with President
Castro. The same applies to all public registries, marriages,
birth, death, property, all those are controlled by Cuban
agents.
Representative Smith was asking about China and the
Internet. I don't know what exactly is going on there but I can
tell you that Venezuela and China have signed hundreds of
agreements. Venezuela owes China billions of dollars and you
see a lot of Chinese people in Venezuela nowadays, and they are
highly involved in the telecommunications. They hold the
largest contracts with the telephone companies that controls
the Internet in Venezuela.
I think I am out of time.
[Note: Mr. Granier did not submit a prepared statement.]
Mr. Engel. Thank you very much, Mr. Granier. Ms. Nuno.
STATEMENT OF ALEJANDRA NUNO, J.D., PROGRAM DIRECTOR FOR CENTRAL
AMERICA AND MEXICO, CENTER FOR JUSTICE AND INTERNATIONAL LAW
Ms. Nuno. I think we are all learning here how to use the
microphones.
Chairman Engel and distinguished members of the
subcommittee, thank you for inviting the Center for Justice and
International Law to testify on press freedom in Honduras
today.
My name is Alejandra Nuno, program director for Central
America and Mexico. CJIL is a nongovernmental organization
dedicated since 1991 to defending and promoting human rights in
the American constitute through the strategic use of tools
offered by international human rights law. We applaud this
committee for calling this timely hearing and for including
Honduras as one of the countries in the Americas where press
freedom is much under threat.
We share the committee's concern about threats to freedom
of press situation in Mexico, Nicaragua and Venezuela and would
add Cuba to the list of nations where this right is severely
restricted.
Press freedoms have been limited in Honduras for many
years, but 2010 has seen a bad situation become more worse,
much worse. Honduras became this year the most dangerous
country for journalists in the continent, while Mexico, with a
population of more than 110 million, four journalists have been
killed in 2010; in Honduras with less than 8 million, eight
journalists have been shot to death this year.
I must point out that freedom of expression watchdogs have
been long criticized Honduran how far it is for efforts to
control or intimidate the media, including the use of public
contracts to punish or reward media for the content and paid
individual reporters for favorable coverage.
Regarding a previous question, from 2003 to 2009, the CPJ
announced three deaths related to the exercise in journalism in
Honduras. After the army forces then President Zelaya to go to
Costa Rica on June 28, the new authority imposed severe
restrictions on the media in order to stifle opposition to the
coup.
Several station channels and radio stations were occupied
by the military and forced to suspend operations. Others were
unable to report events on the air due to power cuts or the
seizure of related stations and transmitters. Others had their
equipment confiscated. Many reporters were assaulted, detained
or threatened. One radio reporter, Gabriel Fino Noriega of
Estelar and Radio America, was shot dead on July 3rd as he left
work.
However, violence against journalists has reached an
unprecedented level since this year. Many journalists continue
to receive death threats related to their reporting. Several of
these cases, including the persecution of journalist of Radio
Progreso, La Voz del Occidente and La Voz de Zacate Grande are
particularly urgent.
These attacks on the media have a profoundly chilling
effect on the free exchange of ideas in Honduras, making
national reconciliation and the restoration of a meaningful
democracy a distant dream. In Honduras, all branches of
government bear responsibility when journalists face
persecution. It is the duty to a state to prevent and the duty
of the judiciary to investigate such occurrences, to punish
their perpetrators and to ensure that victims receive due
compensation, an effective investigation along with other
protective measures can indeed prevent murders and other
violent incidents.
Nonetheless, we are extremely concerned by signs that these
murders will be added to the ever-growing list of cases
remaining in impunity.
As it has been mentioned before, at least seven journalists
were murdered between March 1 and the end of April for reasons
that maybe were related to their work. Seven journalists in 2
months, and those were killed on Monday. Those assassinated
include TV journalist Joseph Hernandez Ochoa, Nahum Palacios,
Jose Bayardo Mairena and just 2 days ago Luis Arturo Mondragon.
In addition, radio journalists David Meza Montesinos, Manual
Juarez, Jose Bayardo Mairena and add to this list, Luis Antonia
Chevez Hernandez have been slain.
None of the victims appear to have been robbed. Each was
shot to death by unidentified men. Many had received threats
related to their work. In the case of reporter Nahum Palacios,
the Inter American Commission on Human Rights has called on
Honduras to take urgent measures to protect his life as the
Special Rapporteur just said.
We have many recommendations for this subcommittee, but we
will sum up in three. We urge the Members of the Congress to
use its powers to effectively send a strong message to the
branches of the Honduran Government that persecution of the
media must stop, and is urging to bring to justice those
responsible for the deaths and threats against journalists.
Also, right now, there are many discussions as to whether
Honduras should be permitted to rejoin the OIS. It would be a
setback for press freedom and human rights in the hemisphere if
that would be done without a minimum human rights conditions,
and then to arbitrary interference with and persecution on the
media and, of course, impunity.
Last but not least, one important way to provide support
for efforts to protect press freedoms and human rights in
general would be the establishment of a local office of the
U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights in Honduras. In my
country, in Mexico, and many other places it has been an
effective way to monitor the situation and to provide technical
cooperation. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Nuno follows:]
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Mr. Engel. Thank you very much, Ms. Nuno. Mr. Enriquez.
STATEMENT OF MR. EDUARDO ENRIQUEZ, MANAGING EDITOR, LA PRENSA
Mr. Enriquez. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I would like to start by saying that in Nicaragua it is
living process; that is, demolishing our constitution, our laws
and our institutions. In that process, of course, freedom of
the press is in the way and the rigid freedom of the press has
to stop in the views of the conversation.
The government, after having been in power in 1980, learned
the lessons of what we call prior censorship. It is not doing
that anymore, but it is doing different things that in the end
have the same results. I will limit to four different ways in
which the government limits freedom of the press and freedom of
expression.
First is the policy of secrecy and lack of transparency.
This was first expressed in a secret document called
Communications Strategy that Ms. Rosario Murillo sent to her
ministers at the beginning of the government in 2007. The
document called for limitation of the discussion of any claims
or items to the agenda that was of interest to the government,
lack of complete communication with the free press, which was
identified as enemy of the people, and the use of the official
press for the direct contact with the people. So she said our
message is uncontaminated. This strategy then means that we
have no access to information.
The other strategy they use is the Regulatory Office of
Communications. By using this office they have been able to
eliminate any criticism from television and hardly any
criticism that exists in radio. One of the examples Jaime
Arellano, a political commentator, was thrown out of Channel 10
due to government pressures, and then he started his program
again in Channel 2, and it did not last more than 3 months
before he was again thrown out.
Radio La Ley, which belonged to a strong critic of the
government, was not even allowed to go on the air, and Radio de
Septiembre was basically bankrupt due to pressures of the
government. Other radio stations, they have been critical like
Corpocacion, El Pensamiento and Radio Dario have suffered the
same problems.
The government is also using the budget for advertisement,
which is controlled by Murillo since January 2007, not to give
advertisement to any critical media. That does not affect much
La Prensa or the big newspapers, but it has caused the closing
of many small radio stations and news programs, especially in
the interior of the country, and the daily newspapers are being
harassed with the unconstitutional law that imposes a tax in
the importation of paper which our constitution says that the
import of paper should be free of import taxes, and the Arsai
law named after Ardo Arsai, who was the one who enforced it or
who pushed for it. What it does is to put a tax on this paper--
on the paper that we have to import and has cost the price to
hike, therefore less people are getting to read the papers and
get information. If you add that to the problems of the TV
stations, it is a problem that less people are getting free
information.
There is also the example of Channel 8 in which the
government, basically Mr. Ortega and his business, Albanisa,
which is in society with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, but Channel
8 is one less independent outlet that we have in our country,
and there is harassment that constantly Channel 4, which is
also owned by Mr. Ortega, is not part of the government, it is
owned by Mr. Ortega, it harasses critical journalism whenever
they have the opportunity.
Last, I will like to say that this scheme, Albanisa
business that Ortega has with Mr. Hugo Chavez, is making him
one of the richest men in the country, and he is trying to use
his money to remain in power. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Enriquez follows:]
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Mr. Engel. Thank you very much, Mr. Enriquez. Mr. Aguirre.
STATEMENT OF MR. ALEJANDRO AGUIRRE, PRESIDENT, INTER AMERICAN
PRESS ASSOCIATION, DEPUTY EDITOR AND PUBLISHER, DIARIO LAS
AMERICAS
Mr. Aguirre. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and members of the
committee. It is a great honor for me to be here today.
My name is Alejandro Aguirre and I am the President of the
Inter American Press Association based in Miami, Florida. I am
also deputy editor and publisher of Diario Las Americas.
The IAPA represents 1,200 newspapers and media outlets in
the hemisphere. Since 1950, we have worked hard fulmenting a
free flow of information and opinion in emerging democracies
through various programs, including our Chapultepec program,
assisting news outlets in developed democracies, as well as
assisting journalists where new media are overtly or covertly
suppressed, especially in the investigation of assassinations
through our impunity project.
In the last 10 years, political dynamics has changed to
such a degree that many of the democratic successes achieved in
the previous decades have been overturned and thousands of
journalists in Latin America and the Caribbean are reporting
under threat of incarceration or murder.
The suppression of the free press is typically exercised in
two was: Either through direct government-sponsored actions or
through an almost total breakdown in civil society, in which
terrorist groups and/or drug cartels intimidate journalists, at
times aided by weak or corrupt local and law enforcement
officials.
Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, you are very
familiar with the various political realities in Latin America,
and time constraints don't permit me to go into many specific
details here, but just let me say that the increase in media
suppression in countries such as Venezuela, Argentina, Cuba,
Ecuador, Bolivia, Nicaragua, Brazil and others, and the murder
of journalists in countries such as Mexico, Honduras and
Colombia, are stifling the independent press as these actions
are intended.
But for the brave voices that continue to report in any way
they can despite the consequences, the flow of information in
many of these countries would be completely lost. These men and
women face direct threats against them and their families,
surveillance of their loved ones, and ultimately brutal
kidnapping and murders.
In Venezuela, the shutdown of RCTV is now in its third
year, 34 radio stations and five television stations have been
closed. An arrest order was given for Mr. Guillermo Zuloaga,
owner of Globovision, after President Chavez criticized him
just last week. The order for arrest was made public the day
the World Cup started.
In Cuba, the half-century-old dictatorship allows no
semblance of free speech as we know it. The women in white were
physically attacked for demanding free speech as was the
blogger Uani Sanchez, 20 journalists remain in jails. Ecuador
recently approved the communications law which, among other
things, requires a mandatory membership to a national
journalist association, prior censorship and a legal
requirement to observe a government-mandated ethical conduct.
These types of laws are becoming a disturbing trend in the
hemisphere.
We recognize President Obama for having expressed his
concern for having freedom of the press directly to the
President of Ecuador, as well as Secretary of State Clinton and
Assistant Secretary Valancuella's discussions on this issue
with the Ecuadorian Government, and we applaud their efforts.
There are a number of cases of judicial censorship in
Venezuela, Peru and Argentina, and there is government
censorship in Brazil in the newspaper O Estado.
This not just a threat to these countries, but it is also a
threat to nations which live by the tenets of freedom of speech
and the press. The suppression of freedom anywhere is a threat
to freedom everywhere. Specifically, the loss of a free press
in Latin America, I believe, poses a direct threat to the
interests of the United States. Organized crime flourishes in
places where there is little or no journalistic activity. These
activities then lead onto greater infiltration of illegal drugs
and weapons, in many cases crossing over U.S. border. It
creates an environment leading to the exodus of an economically
viable population which becomes a desperate population fleeing
their home countries out of fear for their lives.
Since the beginning of this year, 12 journalists have been
murdered, at least seven in Honduras, four in Mexico, and one
in Colombia, and the whereabouts of six reporters who
disappeared in Mexico on the same day remain unknown. The
United States can continue to play a very important role in
encouraging free press in the hemisphere and assisting those
who are seeking to use their voice for the purpose of
independent reporting. The role of the U.S. Government and
continued attention by this subcommittee is critical in this
effort for the sake of this nation and the free world because
freedom of speech is the cornerstone of all democracies.
Thank you again for this opportunity, Mr. Chairman and
members of the committee. I look forward to any questions you
may have.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Aguirre follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S)] [NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Engel. Thank you very much, Mr. Aguirre, and let me
start with Mr. Granier.
You have given us a very graphic picture of the lack of
press freedoms in Venezuela, basically confirming what many of
us have heard and have been saying. The international community
has been unified in condemning actions taken by President
Chavez against RCTV, the European Union and the U.S. Senate
both passed resolutions in support of RCTV, and human rights
organizations, including Human Rights Watch and the Washington
Office on Latin America, have been outspoken. The Organization
of American States' independent human rights mechanisms also
have stood in solidarity with you.
What I am really asking basically is how can we help? What
can we do? What more can the international community do to
support you and other journalists and media owners in
Venezuela? What would be most helpful because we are all
concerned about it? As you can see it cuts across party lines.
Mr. Granier. First of all, I would say we have an election
coming on September 26. The government, through the electoral
council, is not allowing international witnesses to come and
watch the election. Perhaps the democratic parliaments from all
over the world insisted on being present there, even if not
invited, to see what is going on, to prevent any fraud, that
would be very helpful.
The Organization of American States, as Ms. Botero said,
has two different concerns, so to say: One is the protection of
human rights and we feel perfectly happy with all of the work
they have done. The other is the political side of the
Organization of American States which seems to be stifled and
seems to be not help at all for democracy in the continent.
I mean, I have been reading and actually the Secretary
General gave me today another copy of the Inter American
Democratic Chart, and I read it, and I ask myself what is the
purpose of this chart. If we have violations against democracy
and freedoms and rights happening in Venezuela, in Bolivia, in
El Salvador, in Nicaragua, in Honduras, in so many places, in
Cuba but Cuba is not a member, so what is the purpose? He wrote
us a very nice letter after the closure of RCTV International,
the Secretary General, offering his mediation.
I answered his letter accepting the mediation, and came to
Washington to ask him further to go to Venezuela and to see
what is happening there. I mean, hundreds of students who have
protested in the streets are subject to criminal procedures.
That could mean for those kids between 18 and 24 years in
prison, in a Venezuelan prison. By the way, Venezuelan prisons
are the most dangerous of all prisons in the continent, and
that has been proven time and again.
And so I came here. I asked him to go to Venezuela to see
what was happening not only to media, I mean, over 34 radio
stations shut down, several television stations shut down,
students in prison, are persecuted, and he hasn't been there
because the Government of Venezuela has not asked him to go
there. So something has to be done, I think, regarding the
powers of the----
So to answer your question, perhaps give more power to the
Organization of American States or reorganize it, and be
present at the election on September 26.
Mr. Engel. Let me ask you one other question, Mr. Granier.
How much opposition media remains in Venezuela both on radio
and TV, and the printed media, printed press? How much remains?
Mr. Granier. In television, the only independent station is
Globovision, which is under terrible threats right now not only
there is an order to imprison Mr. Zuloaga, also his son, and
one other shareholder in the station is also subject to--I
mean, his bank was shutdown and he is being persecuted now.
None of the others are--not even independent, not even neutral,
I would say. On average they broadcast 3\1/2\ hours of Chavez's
propaganda or Chavez's speeches a day, on average 3\1/2\ hours
a day on every radio and television station in Venezuela. I can
provide you with the figures if you want to.
In the printed press the situation is different. They are
facing a very tough economic situation. Venezuela for five
quarters the economy has been slowing down at a very fast pace.
We have been losing ground at about 5 percent per quarter, and
it appears to be getting worse. On top of that there is
inflation.
In printed media, well, in all media in general advertising
income grows more than proportionally when the Gross Domestic
Product is going up, but it also decrease more than
proportionally. So they are in a very tough situation. On top
of that for their print they need dollars in order to acquire--
Venezuela is not a paper printer producer, and is not a
printing machine producer, so all spare parts, all paper print,
most of the things you need to do a paper, excepting the work
of the journalists, has to be imported. For that you need
foreign currency.
In the past 4 weeks, foreign currency has practically been
not available to anybody, and now it is becoming available in a
very short supply, and controlled by a partisan organization,
so they depend on the goodwill of those people to get the news
print they need, and the very small stations, what are called
community station, they depend on a budget provided by the
government. If they carry news that the government doesn't
like, their licensed is cancelled, and we have several cases of
that happen.
So, in general, I would say that--I mean, five or six
newspapers over the country and some independent journalists
that still do their work, but I will end with this. The
president of the journalist association is ending his term
right now, and he was looking for a job. Nobody wanted to give
him a job because as president of the journalist association he
had a critical position regarding some measures taken by the
government, so the government doesn't like him, so he is moving
away from the country, and that is happening to several other
journalists.
Mr. Engel. Thank you. Mr. Enriquez, let me ask you just a
quick question. In Nicaragua, there were municipal elections
that were held a couple of years ago that were generally
thought to be fraudulent. Can the opposition press write about
that?
Mr. Enriquez. Yes, the opposition press can write about
that. In fact, we have done a lot of investigations about how
the fraud was committed. Nevertheless, whenever we do that or
whenever we launch an investigation on the government, we are
usually attacked either personally or during Mr. Ortega's
speeches.
In one occasion he even called those--that we were doing
media terrorism, and on the anniversary of that fraud that
Ortega celebrated it as a big victory, there was a caravan of
his followers or people that he also, because there are
thousands of people that he pays to go to these speeches, and
they attacked La Prensa with the stones and mortars, and they
caused some damage. So they hold us directly responsible for
the reaction, international reaction that provoked this fraud.
Thank you. Mr. Mack.
Mr. Mack. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and I have only got one,
maybe two questions, because I know that we are running out of
time, but I want to pick up the OAS, and I would like to ask
each one of you if you believe that the OAS is promoting
freedom of the press and democracy in the hemisphere or do you
think it is a hinderance by not--you know, almost the inaction
of the OAS is creating a scenario in which some of these
countries feel like they can follow in Chavez's lead?
So if we could just go down the line and kind of give me
your opinion of whether or not you think the OAS is functioning
properly and if you think it should be reorganized.
Mr. Simon. As someone who was involved many years ago with
the creation of the Special Rapporteur's office and advocated
for the creation of that position, I can say that the addition
of that office has created a greater emphasis within the
structure of the OAS that focuses on human rights, and that is
to the advantage.
It is hugely important to have an advocate like Catalina
Botero within the organization, making sure that these issues
are brought to the attention of the organization.
I have to say honestly that I cannot think of a recent
example in which the political part of the organization was
directly involved in efforts that successfully defended the
right to freedom of expression or press freedom, and I will
leave it at that.
Mr. Mack. Thank you.
Mr. Granier. I think it has proven to be totally useless. I
mean, it has been of no help whatsoever in defending democracy
or in defending freedom of expression or in defending rights of
any kind. It is sad to say that.
On the other hand, the Inter American Commission on Human
Rights is the only international court we have to go to with
our problems, and the problem is that they have no teeth with
their decisions, so their decisions are not implemented until
there is a government willing to accept them.
Regarding the Rapporteur, well, I am glad Ms. Botero is
here, but I mean, she has been the only person willing to
listen. For example, in my personal case I have been threatened
to death and bombs have been thrown at my home. The only person
who has listened to that complaint is Ms. Botero.
I mean, I went to the attorney general in Venezuela. I went
to the civil courts, I went to the penal courts. I went to all
the possible authorities in Venezuela and nothing has been
done. I mean, those people, and they have been clearly
identified, walk around the streets in Venezuela. There is a
documentary produced by a Spanish television station showing
them acting freely. They have been trained by the army. They
have been not only trained by the army, they are protected by
the army. They are supplied by the army.
So regarding the Rapporteur for freedom of information and
the American Commission on Human Rights, I think their work is
commendable, and they have been helping that.
Regarding the Inter American--I mean, the Democratic Chart,
this has to be reviewed. I mean it is no use at all.
Mr. Mack. Thank you.
Ms. Nuno. I agree with the comments. I have to say that it
is important to make a difference within the human rights
organs., The Inter American Commission and the Inter American
Court on Human Rights. They have done a terrific job, not only
the Rapporteurship on freedom of expression, but for example,
the Inter American Court has issued in Nicaragua--it has order
that the Nicaraguans modify the legislation so that the
elections cannot--well, the fraud in elections cannot take
place.
And I agree with Mr. Granier when he says that we have one
challenge is to comply with those resolutions. Those
resolutions are very, very important, and right now we have to
fight, or we have to lobby for those resolutions to be complied
with.
I think that the OAS and the countries that are part of the
OAS, including the U.S. of course, need to give more budget to
the commission and to the court. They have done a terrific job,
and they need more budget and more resources to continue doing
this terrific work.
Regarding the OAS, I just want to say that yes, there are
many challenges. Many challenges regarding democracy
specifically. We were in Lima in the OAS General Assembly and
we were saying, for example, there has to be a follow-up
mechanism for this Inter American Democratic Charter. We were
urging the OAS members states, for example, to give funding and
support for the creation of a Special Rapporteurship that
really monitors and prevents and informs the OAS member states
on specific democracy issues or freedom of expression issues
that are really threatened our nations.
So maybe that is one way to--I don't know--to try t support
those efforts and to, of course, make them more stronger
because they lack many effective ways right now.
Mr. Enriquez. I think the OAS has to go through a complete
overhaul. Right now the way it is working it is to me a
presidents' club, and what I mean by that is that only when a
president is interested in bringing an issue to the OAS, he can
be listened or the issue can be taken into consideration.
We could see how Mr. Insulza during the crisis in Honduras,
he traveled down to Managua to an emergency meeting, tried to
defend democracy in Honduras, the funny thing was that right
beside him was Raul Castro, and that was incredible to me that
he was trying to defend democracy in Honduras while Raul Castro
was beside him with 50 years as a dictator.
So it has to go through a great overhaul because they put a
lot of attention when a President is, you know, for naming it
in a way, in trouble, but in Nicaragua we are living a
permanent coup and no one is listening, at least at the OAS,
and those are not my words. A permanent coup was used when one
of the most respected lawyers in Nicaragua, because it is a
permanent coup that Ortega is doing against the Supreme Court,
against the National Assembly, against the electoral, Supreme
Electoral Council.
As I said, if it is going to work, we have to change the
way it works. Thank you.
Mr. Aguirre. Congressman, when I was a young man I remember
hearing a quote from a former Secretary General of the OAS who
said that the OAS will be what the member states want it to be,
and I can only give you a personal opinion to your question,
but I think that when you have many governments in the
hemisphere that are democratic in origin but as time goes by
behave in more authoritarian ways, that is the kind of policies
you will see reflected in the OAS, and I think that is why
people perceive a double standard with the organization at its
worst or at its best, an inability to really hold human rights,
universal human rights that the organization is sworn to
uphold, and I don't think that that is going to be able to be
changed under the current system.
Mr. Mack. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I agree with our panel
today that the OAS in my opinion is a hinderance, not a help,
and it needs to be changed because, if not, we are not going to
get the real change that we need in Latin America. Thank you,
Your Honor.
Mr. Engel. Before I call on Mr. Sires, I want to just note
that we have been called for a series of votes. So we have a
few minutes left, and Mr. Aguirre, I think you are still a
young man, so don't put yourself down.
Mr. Sires.
Mr. Sires. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
You know, I keep hearing about Chavez money going into
Nicaragua, going into Argentina, you know, going into these
other places. I was just wondering how much of that has an
impact on the press and the people how they report things.
Anyone want to take a--I am always reading about how much money
Chavez throws into these countries, you know, Bolivia,
Nicaragua, and Argentina and some of these other places. How
much do you think that impacts the press?
You know, we have a saying in Spanish--we have a saying in
Spanish you either pay the press or you beat it up, so I was
just wondering--Mr. Aguirre?
Mr. Aguirre. Congressman, that is an excellent question. I
was told at one time that during the Nicaraguan Presidential
elections almost $400 million of aid was given to the
Government of Nicaragua for political purposes. If you consider
the size of the country and the GDP of the country, that is
huge, and because of the way that the government used this
money to create groups that sometimes turned to violence or
intimidating acts to the opposition, that definitely has a
chilling effect on the press because the independent press is
not a friend of these types of regimes, and that kind of--that
amount of money gives you such an incredible amount of
influence and power that you really can start to act with
impunity.
Mr. Sires. Mr. Enriquez?
Mr. Enriquez. Well, in Nicaragua we have seen how, an
example is Channel 8, they just went out and bought it, and now
it is now an outlet for Ortega. There has been other cases of
small TV stations and radio stations which they are simply
working with the government. They are, as Mr. Granier said, not
even neutral because they are receiving a heavy amount of
advertising and that advertisement and the payment does not
come out of the budget usually because they don't have enough
money, but it comes out of Albanisa.
We have also seen how they have money that they do not
report to anyone, and they can contract these kind of people to
be aggressive against independent press. Four hundred million
dollars is what Ortega, according to our calculations, Ortega
is receiving each year since 2008.
Mr. Sires. He is a wealthy man. Mr. Granier?
Mr. Granier. In the Venezuelan case, it hasn't worked at
all. In 12 years I haven't seen one single journal who has
changed his position regarding Chavez because of any undue
influence from the government. I could not say the same for
media owners. I have seen plenty of them who were strongly
against Chavez at one point in time and they were seduced by
easy dollars or by advertising from the government or by
special compensations.
Regarding other countries, I think it depends on the
quality of the press. For example, in Argentina, Chavez has
given billions of dollars and yet you see the Argentinean press
is still independent, both La Natione and Clarin are
independent. You can say the same with the television stations.
In Chile, he as spent a lot of money promoting underground
groups, and it hasn't worked very well in Peru. Even in
Ecuador, Ecuador the press still remains independent. I mean,
all the papers like El Comojo, I mean several papers both in
Guayaquil and Quito.
So I think it depends on the quality of the press in each
country. I repeat, I have not seen one single journalist who
was turned pro-government because he was paid or anything. They
have not been convinced neither by arguments nor by money.
Mr. Sires. Great. Thank you very much.
Mr. Granier. Thank you.
Mr. Engel. Thank you. Mr. Smith.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much. I want to ask the panel
just as I asked Ms. Botero to look into the deployment of
Chinese cyber police, as well as Cuba, Nicaragua, anywhere
else, because I do think under the cover of working on the
media their worst practices are being replicated and it is the
way of shutting down--it is easy to attack paper, it is a
little harder to attack the Internet, so please look into that.
Let me just point out another point, In 1984, and Mr.
Enriquez, you make the point that the Carlos Fernando Cherago
from Baracada has gone over to the opposition side. How do the
people react when you are attacked, your friends are attacked?
Are they attacked as well?
And I would note parenthetically back in 1984, you know,
just to get a little glimpse of just how harsh some of these
people can be, Baracada, three other Members of Congress and I
went and met with Ortega, fought with him in an argument about
human rights for about 2 hours, and the way that they
misrepresented us was astounding.
I mean, we get bad press here sometimes. You write a letter
to the editor. But it was just--I mean, it was grossly
misinformation, gross misinformation, and it just taught me a
lesson of just how bad some of these groups can be.
And finally, the Human Rights Council, Nicaragua and Cuba
have both gone through their universal periodic reviews, press
freedom issues were raised. I know the Universal Periodic
Review they suggested a monitor go to Cuba, and I was there
with the Mondavalladaries when he won the first resolution on
Cuba at the old Human Rights Commission, and, frankly, everyone
who talked to that commission who happened to be a political
prisoner was retaliated against, and yet the U.N. continues to
have Cuba sitting as a member in good standing on the Human
Rights Council.
That is an absolute outrage and it makes a mockery of the
Human Rights Commission and Human Rights Council, and those who
permit it at the U.N. ought to hang their heads in shame that
such a rogue nation could sit there, run interference for other
rogue nations, including themselves.
Mr. Engel. Well, thank you very much, Mr. Smith. I want to
thank all the panelists for very, very good testimony. I know
we talked about hypocrisy. I know, Mr. Enriquez, you mentioned
the hypocrisy of Raul Castro being concerned about freedom on
Honduras when he provides none for his own country.
We had to chuckle before when we saw that Nicaragua
suspended relations with Israel because it objected to the
incident on the flotilla when there were no freedoms, as you
pointed out, Mr. Enriquez, in Nicaragua; limited freedoms in
terms of press freedom. And similarly with Ecuador. They call
its ambassador to Israel to protest, yet we had Emelio Palacio
being given a jail sentence, and we had Mr. Correa's statements
about press in this country which concerned Secretary Clinton
who made some comments about it as well.
So I think that hypocrisy reigns supreme, but this
committee, this subcommittee, we will continue to focus
attention on the freedoms of the press in all these places, and
I thank all of you for your really good, all five of you, for
your really good expert testimony and your concerns. I think
that if we bring these things to light and we keep shining a
light on them, that is the best way to make sure that they are
changed, and that we have the freedom of the press that the
peoples of all the Americas deserve.
So thank you very much for your great testimony, and the
hearing is now adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 4:20 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
A P P E N D I X
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