“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