Top Venezuelan Legislator Wants IAPA Declared 'Non Grata' For March Meeting

By: Mark Fitzgerald Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's administration has stoutly denied it pressured hotels around the nation to deny the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) a meeting place for its mid-year meeting next March -- but now a top pro-government legislator is proposing to declare IAPA's presence "non grata."

Desire Santos, first vice president of the National Assembly, said in a press conference that she would propose legislation requiring Chavez to declare the group non grata in the nation. The report by Intopress Caracas, carried on the front page of La Nacion Sunday, identified Santos as a "journalist."

In its annual meeting in Miami last week, IAPA said some of the worst abuses against press freedom in the past six months occurred in Venezuela. The group especially criticized the government's decision not to renew the license of Radio Caracas Television, and to seize the station's retransmitters to create a state-run channel. IAPA leaders also suggested the rash of last-minute hotel cancellations in three separate Venezuelan locations were intended to sabotage its plans to meet in the nation.

Santos called the IAPA reports at its meeting an attack on the nation's sovereignty.

"If this organization considers this country a dictatorship, a regime that attacks human rights and freedom of expression, then it shouldn't come to Venezuela," she said.

Santos also attacked the Paris-based press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF for its initials in French) which has harshly criticized the Chavez government.

IAPA and RSF, she said, were "mercenaries" of the United States, "made up only of media owners who exploit journalists and press workers, that lacks respect for our sovereignty and our nation."

The Intopress Caracas article also quoted the government's chief spokesman, William Lara, as saying IAPA's 63rd General Assembly in Miami "was a replica of the sessions of the Salem witch trials," and that its report on Venezuela "defamed, injured, and vilified Venezuela, denying the strong freedom of liberty we have in our nation."

IAPA officials insisted in Miami that it would find some way to meet in Venezuela for the mid-year meeting, scheduled for March 28-31.