The private channel Venevisión, the most-watched open signal in Venezuela, sparked a strong controversy after re-broadcasting the statements of opposition leader María Corina Machado, made following her meeting in Washington with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
In the message, Machado stated: “Although I am not physically in Venezuela, my heart is with you, and I will soon be back in our country. Now more than ever, we know that it is a spiritual struggle and that we have advanced hand in hand with God.”
Her words, common on social media but absent from national television for over a decade, were broadcast by the Venevisión news program, which confirmed to Telemundo 51 that “they were merely fulfilling their duty to inform, with balance.”
The government's response was swift. From public television, the Minister of Interior, Justice and Peace, Diosdado Cabello, issued a direct warning to the channel: “Listen to me, Venevisión, without media noise your figure fades away, without headlines it simply disappears.”
The broadcast of the interview, amid the political transition following the fall of the regime of Nicolás Maduro, reopened the debate on censorship and the role of the media in the new Venezuelan stage. Machado, who maintains constant communication with international allies, emphasized after her meeting with Rubio the priority that President Donald Trump places on the democratic stability of the country.
The National College of Journalists recalled that more than 500 media outlets have been closed since the beginning of the Bolivarian revolution, a fact that reignites the discussion about press freedom in Venezuela.
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