CHAVEZ WINS- SHUTS DOWN INDEPENDENT TV CHANNELS!

CARACAS, Venezuela — Officials identifying themselves as members of a state regulatory agency forced the U.S.-based Spanish-language TV network Telemundo to halt transmission Sunday of its presidential election coverage.

"We're surprised by this," said Pablo Iacub, a member of Telemundo's eight-person team, which arrived last week. "We only want to do our work," he said by telephone.

At least six people who identified themselves as members of the National Commission of Telecommunications (CONATEL), which regulates electronic media in Venezuela, arrived Sunday afternoon at the hotel from which Telemundo had been transmitting since Friday, said Iacub.

The officials said the network needed permission to transmit and lacking such could not, he said. Iacub said he was unaware of such a requirement but that the Telemundo journalists were accredited with Venezuela's national elections council.

Iacub said the Telemundo team asked how they could obtain permission and, after an hour, were told that they would not be able to transmit.

Telephone calls to Conatel offices seeking comment on the incident went unanswered.

Telemundo Communications Group is owned by NBC Universal Inc., which is controlled by General Electric Co. It claims to reach about 93 percent of Hispanic households in the U.S. and also has viewers in Mexico.

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/4376202.html

Anti-U.S. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez claimed victory with a cry of "long live the revolution" as official results showed him heading for a landslide re-election win on Sunday.

Chavez won 61 percent, while Manuel Rosales, a governor of an oil-producing province who united the opposition, trailed with 38 percent after 78 percent of the vote had been counted, the National Electoral Council said.

If the trend continues, Chavez, 52, will have a strong mandate in his next six-year term to press his self-styled socialist revolution and forge an anti-U.S. front in Latin America to counter what he calls the superpower's "imperialism."  http://snipurl.com/13zse

-- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez backed the possibility of holding a national referendum, if he's re-elected, on whether to shut down private television stations that he has accused of subversive activities.

Chavez's comments late Thursday came amid rising tensions between the government and the country's largely opposition-aligned private media ahead of Sunday's vote.

Chavez was asked in a televised interview if he would consider asking the nation whether the government should block certain channels from renewing their broadcast licenses next year. (Watch Chavez land a nod as Time magazine's Person of the Year )

"That is perfectly possible," Chavez said. "It's perfectly possible that the country gives its opinion, including for how long."

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/americas/12/01/chavez.venezuela.election.ap/index.html