As I reported here recently, organized crime gangs south of the border are fighting it out for the privilege of delivering substances to the Puritanical United States which in its infinite wisdom has made them as illegal as violence and rape. That made the products valuable enough to attract the most dangerous members of society. Their versions of doing business are not as gentle as those of, say, mergers and acquisition players in the corporate world - as far as I know. They settle things with guns. Oliver Stone’s fine film Salvador is yet another way to look at the problem of journalists in the midst of the agonies to our south. Some caused by our own government.

In Latin America the cartels can now throw money around, buy officials and police, arm themselves and insulate themselves. They became used to their power and are not relinquishing it gracefully. Down in Venezuela they’re really riding the wave of populist revolt and anti-democratic feelings that have grown from the anti-Americanism our government has worked so hard to create. Hugo Chavez may seem the clown, but he remains another symbol of a groundswell of restrictive governments using their power to censor thought, information and expression.

The Venezuelan regime’s plan is to close down the TV station, RCTV, which was an independent voice in the shifting politics of that country. He will replace RCTV with a network visibly controlled by the state. We are reminded that in 2003 Chavez was already promising that they would soon “... start closing down television stations. No freedom,” he said, “is unlimited.”

It’s thought that the United States has lost its moral power to intervene on the side of freedom because of the loss of our moral standing following the actions of Washington when it comes to spying and putting undue pressure on bona fide journalists. There are, after all, the spying cases and pressures on journalists to reveal their sources. There is the old cry of “national security” that now carries the ring of possibility in it.

Last Saturday protesters in Caracas marched against the Chavez plan to close the opposition TV station. Hugo Chavez, they said loudly, was “maiming Venezuelan democracy” in order to “forge a socialist state.” RCTV is Venezuela’s oldest private broadcaster. It is said to have involved itself in the 2002 coup attempt that ended up “bungled”.