MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Washington/Caracas clash over democracy and free press

United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Venezuela's Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro fired verbal attacks at each other on Monday in Panama over the closure of a key opposition television station in Venezuela that has prompted mass protests.

The dispute between Washington and Caracas took centre stage at a gathering of foreign ministers of the Organization of American States, a meeting intended to focus on energy, environment and development issues. Rice hit out at the silencing of Radio Caracas Television, RCTV, calling it Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez's "sharpest and most acute" move yet against democracy. Venezuela's top diplomat, Nicolas Maduro, then accused her of hypocrisy, unacceptable meddling in his nation's affairs and compared the U.S. detention centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and secret prisons elsewhere to something not seen since "the time of Hitler." Rice told reporters en route to Panama that Chavez's closure of RCTV was just the latest and perhaps strongest attack on democracy since coming to power in the late 1990s and pursuing an increasingly anti-U.S. and leftist line. At the meeting, she urged the OAS to send its secretary-general, Jose Miguel Insulza, to Venezuela to look into the closing of the station and deliver a full report on his findings. "Freedom of speech, freedom of association and freedom of conscience are not a thorn in the side of government," Rice told the ministers. "Disagreeing with your government is not unpatriotic and most certainly should not be a crime in any country, especially a democracy." Maduro, speaking after Rice, reacted angrily, saying her comments were an "unacceptable intervention is the internal affairs of a nation, and that is why we reject it". "Venezuela is asking for respect," he said. "We demand respect for our sovereignty." Maduro defended the decision to close RCTV as "democratic, legal and fair" and accused Washington of repeated violations of human rights, including at the U.S.-Mexico border where immigrants "are chased and hunted like animals" and at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where he said terrorism suspects are being "held hostage." Rice requested and was given time to rebut Maduro's comments, saying that "issues of democracy and the defence of democracy are never inappropriate" and defending the United States' record on press freedom, noting that media outlets routinely criticize the U.S. government. "I am quite certain that it would be difficult for any commission to debate more fully, to criticize more fully the policies of the United States government than is done every night on CNN, on ABC, on CBS, on NBC and on any number of smaller channels," she said. "That is the point of press freedom," Rice said. "In a democracy the citizens of a country should have the assurance that the policies of their government will be held up for criticism by a free and independent press without the interference of their government. "The citizens of the United States have that assurance, I sincerely hope that the citizens of Venezuela will have that assurance as well," she said to loud applause before leaving the room before Maduro could reply. In response, Maduro lashed out at Rice for leaving the room and kept to his criticism of Guantanamo. "There are hundreds, a disastrous thing comparable only to the time of Hitler, when there were clandestine jails with prisoners who didn't have names. It's monstrous," he said. It was unclear whether Rice's prediction that the OAS meeting would produce a statement of support for freedom of the press and expression in the Americas. Brazil, Honduras, Guatemala and Chile have expressed support for RCTV and on Monday in Panama, newspapers and a consortium of media groups published ads, saying "Without freedom of expression, there is no liberty, not in Venezuela or any other part of the world." OAS Secretary General Jose Miguel Insulza told reporters Sunday that no member nation had yet presented a formal request that the issue of RCTV be discussed at the forum. Bolivia, Cuba and Nicaragua, all run by leftist governments, issued a joint statement Monday supporting the Chavez government on television network controversy. The three nations "unanimously ... expressed their unwavering support" for Venezuela's decision to grant the RCTV signal to TVes, a new government-run station. The trio described TVes as Venezuela's "first experience in public service television." Most of the Venezuelan news media are in private hands, including many newspapers and radio stations that remain critical of Chavez.