On Friday, March 24th, the National Telecommunications Commission (Conatel) applied the pliers to the radio stations “Chabasquén 16.7 FM”, and “Biscucuy Stereo 88.7 FM”, forcing them to turn off their equipment, which was later confiscated.
By Correspondent La Patilla
The closure of “Chabasquén 106.7 FM” which belonged to the Mayor’s Office of the “Monseñor José Vicente de Unda” Municipality. Its mayor, who belongs to of the opposition party “Fuerza Vecinal”, Oswaldo Zerpa, just days before had denounced in a video that the “Tuna A” that comes in the “CLAP boxes” (Government run food program), it is made of cardboard.
Despite the fact that this version was denied by the Venezuelan Fake News Observatory, the distribution of this product was suspended in Portuguesa State, and samples were sent to the “Rafael Rangel” National Institute of Hygiene for its respective evaluation.
“Biscucuy Stereo 88.7 FM” was a community radio station, which also belonged to the Mayor’s Office in the Sucre Municipality of Portuguesa State, where the Mayor is Jobito Villegas of the “Voluntad Popular” party.
Villegas was the one who on February 28th, chained himself to the Sucre Municipal Council to demand the approval of additional credits to address and solve basic service problems.
On the radios of Chabasquén and Biscucuy there was very diverse programming with spaces for information and opinion, which did not silence any complaints from citizens against Nicolás Maduro’s regime.