Senior officials in Chavez’s government moved quickly to react to growing international and domestic criticism of the decision. Reporters Without Borders, the Paris-based press freedom group, said the move, which Chavez announced in a speech before military officers last week, was a “serious attack on editorial pluralism.” The group asked Chavez’s government “to reconsider its stance and guarantee an independent system of concessions and renewals of licenses.”

Vice-president Jose Vicente Rangel said the decision was not political retaliation but a “right of the state for reasons that are justified.” Others officials, however, made it clear that the decision was a reaction to RCTV’s editorial policies, particularly in relation to a coup in April 2002 that briefly removed Chavez as president.

“RCTV’s determining role during the events of ’02 coup must be remembered,” Willian Lara, the communications minister, said at a news conference on Friday. “That irresponsible attitude hasn’t changed at RCTV.”

RCTV’s actions and other private broadcasters during the chaotic days of the coup are at the heart of their tension with Chavez’s government. Several broadcasters appeared to support the coup, substituting coverage of the coup’s collapse and Chavez’s return to power with reruns of American movies and Walt Disney cartoons.

Since then, Chavez has accused broadcasters of waging a “psychological war” against his administration, describing the country’s main channels, Globovision, Televen, Venevision and RCTV, as “horsemen of the apocalypse.” His re-election this month to a six-year term has not tempered his disdain for t he traditional news media elite, and for RCTV in particular.

“This decision can only be seen as a control strategy and an abuse of power,” said Ewald Scharfenberg, executive director of the Institute for Press and Society, a group here that examines press freedom issues.

Through elections and personnel changes over the past eight years, Chavez and his supporters have consolidated power across Venezuela’s political institutions, controlling Congress, the Supreme Court and every state government but two. The private media are one of the areas of society, along with private enterprise, religious institutions and professional sports, outside the president’s control.

Teodoro Petkoff, editor of the opposition-aligned newspaper Tal Cual, described Venezuela’s political system as an “autocracy” advancing toward “light totalitarianism,” this month, comments that inflamed Chavez’s government.

With their vociferous criticism of Chavez and his policies, private newspapers, television stations and radio broadcasters, along with a small community of Internet bloggers, offer daily evidence that freedom of expression still exists here.

Still, pro-Chavez legislation has enhanced the government’s ability to clamp down on critics through legal action or threats of prosecution. A 2004 law subjects TV and radio stations to heavy fines or suspension of their licenses for broadcasts deemed to “condone or in cite” public disturbances.

Similarly, legislators amended the criminal code last year to increase penalties for criminal defamation and libel.

-SIMON ROMERO