From a space made for communication, for investigative journalism, for criticism and the debate of ideas, to a place where ideology, confrontation, battle and the denial of the principles of communication prevail. In the expropriated spaces The National in Los Cortijos, Caracas, began its activities today International University of Communications.
At the event were the first students that Chavismo has managed to gather to ideologize and try to put them at its service. They will be at the service of the Sao Paulo Forum, which proposed the creation of this house of studies on December 4, 2019. In fact, their representatives met with the rector Tania Diaz March 7th. They assured that this was “a university created to wage a cultural battle against hegemonic discourse.”
#Today the members of the @ForodeSaoPaulo present at #Venezuela we met with the partner @taniapsuv Rector International University of Communications @lauicom a University created to wage a cultural battle against the hegemonic discourse #PSUVEnCongreso pic.twitter.com/wGZ1lHKapw
– alejandro rusconi (@ale_rusconi) March 7, 2022
run over against The National
the headquarters of The National, today the place where the University of Communications works, was expropriated by the government after a process full of irregularities led by Diosdado Cabello, who sued for defamation. The courts ruled that the company should pay him $13.4 million in damages.
The headquarters building was awarded to Cabello on January 27 by Judge Lisbeth del Carmen Amoroso Hidrobo, sister of the Comptroller General of the Republic, Elvis Amoroso. The measure was executed irregularly, as the date, time and minimum amount for the interested parties to make their offers were not publicly reported, in violation of the procedural rules established by law. Nor was the judicial representative of The National.
Jorge Canahuati, president of the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA), condemned “the consummation of the robbery of the century against independent journalism, something that can only happen in a dictatorship.” The first executive of Grupo Opsa, from Honduras, added: “The dictatorship has used all its weapons to close media outlets and muzzle the press during these 20 years, but this political-judicial strategy is perhaps the most creative.”
“With the value of The National you didn’t pay me, I think now I’m going to go for the page, I think,” said Cabello on his television show on February 9. “You are provoking me to go one step further,” she warned.
The next day a blockade of the website began that continues to this day, an action that has been rejected in the world and that shows the spirit of the government. The inhabitants of Venezuela cannot see, or only partially, the information published by The National.
Master class or government propaganda?
The Minister of Communication of the Maduro government, Freddy Ñañez, was the main guest. He presented in the spaces of the old dining room of the headquarters of The National what they gave to call a master class.
“President Maduro has spoken that conditions are being met for a change of era, in terms of the dynamics of power and the stories that have been imposed throughout our contemporary history,” he said.
#EnVIDEO ????
Thus, the students of the first cohort of #LaUicom receive a master class from the Minister of Communication and Information, Freddy Ñañez. #CommunicationForLiberation #LoyalToTheRevolution pic.twitter.com/wFO17rp7ZB
— INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF COMMUNICATIONS (@lauicom) March 15, 2022
Diaz announced that classes will begin on March 28. “Next week we are going to have a great day of discussion, of debate, of sharing with those first associates that we have here, and on the 28th we will begin the formal classes on concepts and contents,” he said.
“This university is an academic institution with all of the law, a meeting point, a space for communication,” he said.
“We are going to train men and women who are active in the principle of peace, defenders of identity,” he added.
“This University is an academic institution with all of the Law, it is a meeting point, a space for communication”, @taniapsuv.#CommunicationForLiberation #LoyalToTheRevolution pic.twitter.com/h60zSe9ygO
— INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF COMMUNICATIONS (@lauicom) March 15, 2022
Tibisay Lucena was also in the act. The former rector of the National Electoral Council (CNE), today rector of the Experimental University of the Arts and Minister of University Education, with her presence supported the dispossession made to The National. He said that in the last 22 years the educational levels of Venezuelans have risen considerably.
“We are not going to give up, we are never going to submit. I believe and I am convinced that it is no longer so easy to deceive. Critical thinking flourishes in the face of all that cynicism in the United States, this is where a university made for that war becomes important” , @TibisayLucena8. pic.twitter.com/ABpkCfejmd
— INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF COMMUNICATIONS (@lauicom) March 15, 2022