Welcome to Cato Daily Podcast

Daily Podcast for Wednesday, May 30th. I'm your host Anastasia Global.

This past weekend saw an egregious

centralization of power in Venezuela as President Hugo Chavez shut down the

dissident radio Caracas television and threatened to exercise even more media control,

sparking protests in Caracas that were quickly met with police force.

How much more damage can Chavez inflict on his own country?

Gustavo Coronel, who is the author of the recent Cato Institute study, corruption,

mismanagement, and abuse of power in Hugo Chavez's Venezuela, thinks that Chavez isn't

long for his throne. He's the guest on today's

podcast. Why is Hugo Chavez cracking down on the media in Venezuela and

now threatening to shut down Globovision in addition to having shut down

radio Caracas television.

Well, Ugo Chavez since he won his re-election in December has claimed that he now wants to have a socialist government or regime in Venezuela.

So he needs to control the media because by definition a socialist totalitarian government cannot have or cannot afford to have free press.

So this is the explanation of why he's taking over Radio Caracas Television and he's now threatening to do the same with

Lobovision.

You see the Venezuelan government already controls half a dozen television stations and more than 100 radio stations in Venezuela.

So you have to assume that there is no longer freedom of expansion in Venezuela.

But his actions have sparked protests, massive protests over the weekend, so this is clearly

not popular with the people. why is he doing this?

Well the polls taken about a month ago say that over 80% about 85% of the Venezuelan

...