Venezuela is a cautionary tale w/ Jim Epstein and Germania Rodriguez Poleo

For more than half a century, Radio Caracas
Television, or RCTV, broadcast news, sports, comedies, and
telenovelas in Venezuela. Its news coverage was also fiercely
critical of President Hugo Chavez.

When RCTV’s broadcast license expired, the government
refused to renew it. Minutes later, a state-funded channel took its
place.

RCTV was one target in a broader campaign to silence
dissent. Under Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro, the government
gradually tightened its grip on the media, punished political
dissent, and weakened institutions that had protected democratic
freedoms.

A new documentary, Escaping Venezuela, traces the
erosion of free speech and press freedom through the story of
Carlos Mora, who was imprisoned and tortured after helping
Venezuelan dissidents escape to Colombia.

Joining us are director Jim Epstein and narrator
Germania Rodriguez Poleo to discuss the film and how Venezuela’s
democratic institutions broke down.

Read more about Escaping
Venezuela here.

Read Germania’s Reason article here.

Timestamps:

00:00 Intro

03:12 Fear and self-censorship under Chavez

07:39 Making Escaping Venezuela

12:53 Germania’s family and the crackdown on
journalists

18:41 The destruction of Venezuela’s free press

22:43 How Venezuela silenced dissent

32:56 RCTV as a symbol for press freedom

39:31 Venezuela after Maduro’s capture

44:41 How Venezuela embraced socialism and Chavez came
to power

50:13 Venezuelan immigrants and the end of TPS

52:44 Can Venezuela become a democracy again?

01:01:01 Where to watch Escaping Venezuela

01:04:05 Outro

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