Venezuela shuts off CNN in Spanish after criticizing story
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s government pulled CNN in Spanish from the nation’s airwaves on Wednesday, shutting off the news channel after officials angrily criticized a report alleging the country’s diplomats sold passports to members of a Middle East terror group.
The National Telecommunications Commission announced it initiated sanctions because of news stories that it considered “direct aggressions” that “threaten the peace and democratic stability” of Venezuela, the agency said in a news release.
The move comes as the new U.S. administration seems to be trying to further isolate Venezuela’s embattled socialist President Nicolas Maduro. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump called on Maduro to release jailed opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez, saying he should be let “out of prison immediately.”
Trump tweeted the message along with a photo from the Oval Office of him with Lopez’s wife, Lilian Tintori, as well as Vice-President Mike Pence and Sen. Marco Rubio.