IAPA Finally Lands Site For Venezuela Meeting

By: E&P Staff Last fall, as Venezuela neared a vote on constitutional changes to give even more power to President Hugo Chavez, the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) was finding no room at the inn for its long-planned 2008 mid-year meeting in March.

One after another, hotels in Caracas and other locations first agreed to host the meeting, and then suddenly found reasons they could not be the venue for the press freedom association of newspapers and other media in the hemisphere. IAPA leaders suspected pressure from the anti-American government.

But now, after Venezuelan voters on Dec. 2 narrowly rejected Chavez's "reform" package, IAPA has found a hotel willing to accommodate the meeting -- which it said will not follow the usual mid-year format, but will be "a special program designed to provide strong support to Venezuela's news media."

From the start, IAPA President Earl Maucker, editor of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, said the group was determined to meet in Venezuela. He went ahead with a "study mission" of an IAPA delegation two weeks before the constitutional vote -- even when the pro-Chavez legislature voted nearly unanimously to ask the government to declare the delegation, and the entire mid-year meeting, "personas non grata."

Maucker even made a side trip during the study mission to explore the possibility of holding it in an unlikely spot -- to a mountain top German-style village about 40 miles from Caracas.

Wednesday, Maucker said he believes there's been a "subtle shift in attitude" by those who successfully opposed the constitutional changes.

"First thing we need to understand is that I am no authority on Venezuelan politics -- not by a long shot," he said. "But, having said that, there did seem to be a change in attitude by the 'No' vote on the reform. A subtle shift in attitude that provided a bit of confidence by those opposing the reforms and perhaps less of a feeling of retaliation by opponents of the reform movement."

In addition, there have been none of the demonstrations, some of which turned violent, there were in the run-up to the referendum.

By going on our mission and showing our unity and strength, I believe we sent a very strong message to the Venezuelan press bloc that we were firmly behind them and our support never wavered," he added. "That should translate well in our upcoming meeting. The press group in Venezuela were encouraged by that demonstration of support and are thrilled to host this meeting in March which has been in the planning stages for several years."

The meeting will be held March 28-30 at the Caracas Palace Hotel in the capital city's Altamira district.

IAPA actually went on two study missions to Venezuela in 2007, the first when the government denied a broadcast license extension to the politically independent RCTV, on the grounds that it had supported an the brief coup against Chavez in 2002.

"This is what the IAPA is all about -- to advance freedom of expression and of the press and for us as an organization to show support and publicly demonstrate that support wherever and whenever possible," Maucker said. "Venezuela is a perfect example of how it should work, in my opinion."

Separately, Maucker issued a year-end statement in which he said "IAPA has been both a major player in and a witness to the advances and setbacks in freedom of the press in the Americas."

He noted that IAPA "organized and/or participated in 49 activities, among them missions, conferences, forums and seminars, that mobilized a total of 646 persons -- including members, journalists, media executives, lawmakers, judges, politicians and civil society leaders -- to mark its presence in almost every country and region of the Western Hemisphere."

Maucker also noted the hemisphere's death toll, with 13 journalists were murdered in Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and the United States. Four reporters disappeared in Mexico and are still missing.

And violence extended even to circulation workers, with three massacred apparently because of narcotic traffickers displeasure with their newspaper

"And, when addressing this serious matter of violence we cannot fail to mention Cuba, a country we continue calling upon to free 27 imprisoned independent journalists, several of them in ailing health," Maucker said.