CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Sunday that the owner of a critical television channel should turn himself in to face justice.
Chavez said during his weekly television and radio program that Guillermo Zuloaga, who owns the TV channel Globovision, should defend himself in court on charges of usury and conspiracy for keeping 24 new Toyota vehicles stored at a home he owns.
Zuloaga has called those charges bogus and an attempt to intimidate a channel that takes a strong critical line against Chavez’s government. His whereabouts were unknown two days after authorities issued an arrest warrant for him and one of his sons.
"That man, why doesn’t he turn himself in? He flees and right away they start saying … that it’s Chavez who is after him," the president said, denying that and saying "I’m no judge."
The arrest warrant was announced by prosecutors a week after Chavez publicly lamented that Zuloaga remained free while awaiting trial. The attempt to jail him drew widespread condemnation from opposition leaders and press freedom groups.
Chavez has long accused Globovision and other media outlets of conspiring against him. The all-news channel Globovision has been the only stridently anti-Chavez station on the air since another opposition-aligned channel, RCTV, was forced off cable and satellite TV in January. RCTV was booted off the open airwaves in 2007.
Zuloaga has denied wrongdoing and accused Chavez of using the justice system to go after him.
Police and soldiers raided a home owned by Zuloaga in May 2009 and found the vehicles stored there. Zuloaga, who also owns several car dealerships, has said he stored them on the property for safekeeping because one of his dealerships had been robbed.
He also is facing other accusations in court, including criminal charges filed earlier this year accusing him of making false and offensive remarks about Chavez at a meeting of the Inter American Press Association in Aruba.
