Hugo Chávez was a media creation. When he was caught in 1992, leading a coup against the democratically elected Carlos Andrés Pérez, he was allowed to address the nation live. His call to his fellow coup plotters to lay down their arms and his “for now” statement instantly turned him into a national icon. Chávez understood, better than any politician in Venezuela, the significance of media control. Thus, he aimed to build a media empire, or as one of his ministers put it, “create a communicational hegemony, but from a gramscian concept,” meaning “construct a hegemonic media empire modeled on Gramsci’s concepts.” Berlusconi or Slim would be proud… Chávez did everything possible to make this happen, pouring countless amounts of public funds into it, but soon realized his media empire had very little reach. People continued to favor traditional channels and newspapers. In fact, RCTV, a television channel sympathetic to the opposition, had the highest national audience ratings. So, what did Chávez do? In 2007, he revoked RCTV’s indefinite license and sent his enforcers to seize the channel and millions of dollars worth of broadcasting equipment.
That was the first hurdle. Then, it became clear that Globovisión, a 24-hour news channel critical of his regime, had to be silenced. Instead of repeating what he did to RCTV—which was roundly condemned by all human rights NGOs, multilateral organizations, political figures, and democratic governments around the world—Chávez suffocated them with countless legal proceedings, visits from regulatory bodies, and fines. The owners of Globovisión faced such unbearable pressure that they fled the country and, from their exile in the U.S., sold it to a group of investors, who are close allies of the Chávez regime. The acquisition of Globovisión is being contested, but that’s another matter.
The two television channels that regularly aired critiques were taken over, and attention shifted to newspapers. Traditionally, El Nacional, El Universal, and Ultimas Noticias have been the largest in Venezuela, with the first two appealing to middle and upper-class circles and the latter among the poor. Given that Venezuela has far more poor people than middle or upper class, Ultimas Noticias is by far the most read newspaper. Previous sources from Ultimas Noticias told me its circulation exceeded that of El Nacional and El Universal combined. In any case, El Nacional was co-opted. Its owner, Miguel Henrique Otero, married a woman named Antonieta Jurado. Jurado was the personal assistant to Juan Barreto, the Chávez loyalist and former mayor of Caracas, who used to write columns for El Nacional, and once in power, returned the favor by using El Nacional as a propaganda tool for his office. Besides the capitulation of El Nacional, Jurado and Otero also have a majority stake in Noticias24.com, possibly the most popular news site in Venezuela. El Universal, as far as I know, remains independent, while Ultimas Noticias—clearly supportive of Chávez’s regime for most of his rule and benefitting from billions in advertising—was recently bought by another “group of investors.” This other group, having witnessed how Globovisión nearly faltered after the late acquisition and related legal challenges, reportedly appointed a banker, Carlos Acosta López (a man with his own dubious past), to manage Ultimas Noticias. Sources familiar with the acquisition told me that the new owners, among whom is banker Víctor Vargas, want to keep a low profile and not be associated with Ultimas Noticias for fear that their readership numbers might plummet. The source also mentioned that the goal of these acquisitions is to cover up the trail of multimillion-dollar fortunes made through illegitimate means, à la Carlos Slim, who benefited from his close friendship with Carlos Salinas de Gortari and the PRI in Mexico.
In any case, no national media outlets can overshadow the Gramscian construction controlled by chavismo and its allies. In a recent development, journalist Nelson Bocaranda reports today:
45 million dollars is said to be the price paid by some “bolichicos,” the young boliburgues entrepreneurs who grew up in the shadow of the electric drama, for one of the country’s major cable operators. The deal took place in Texas…
Bocaranda has a knack for cryptic language and nowadays has to defend himself in chavista kangaroo courts, so allow me to explain his message: Derwick Associates purchased Intercable from HM Capital Partners for $45 million. Why would a company whose “expertise” lies in the energy sector buy a cable company? Let me take a wild guess. When the disgraced Mario Silva was still a respected figure within chavismo, he claimed that cable companies were “sabotaging” the signal of the Venezuelan state television channel. Silva continued to assert he would “investigate the owners and report them daily…” identifying Intercable, then owned by HM Capital Partners, as one of the culprits. Four months later, a company that has been awarded over $3 billion in energy contracts makes its first diversification investment in cable.
Chavismo’s propaganda channels are overrepresented on Intercable. While Intercable doesn’t seem to be in the business of producing content, it would be interesting to monitor which channels, if any, get removed from its list. Just to be sure, I emailed Sarah Bradley from HM Capital Partners (now known as Kainos Capital):
Dear Ms. Bradley,
I am a Venezuelan investigative journalist based in London.
Two weeks ago, I was informed that a Venezuelan group (Derwick Associates and/or its executives Leopoldo Alejandro Betancourt López, Pedro Trebbau López, Francisco Convit) had purchased Inter, a cable company operating in Venezuela in which HM Capital Partners had a majority stake.
Venezuelan journalist Nelson Bocaranda reported today that the deal closed in Texas for $45 million.
Therefore, I would like to inquire:
– Can you confirm the deal?
– Can you confirm the identity of the acquiring party?
– Can you confirm the amount paid?
– Did your firm conduct any due diligence regarding the legitimacy of the funds used in the acquisition?
I would appreciate your response to the above.
Sincerely,
alek boyd
Let’s hope Ms. Bradley can respond.