Ep. 284: Venezuela is a cautionary tale w/ Jim Epstein and Germania Rodriguez Poleo

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

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 Chávez and Nicolás 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 Rodríguez 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