Jorge Ramos, arrested by Maduro: "was the proof of abuse suffered by Venezuelan journalists"

"I was expelled from Venezuela on Tuesday, February 26, after a tense interview with Nicolás Maduro, the president of the country, in the middle of our conversation, he got up and left, and his security agents confiscated our cameras, memory cards with the recording and our cell phones, yes, Maduro stole the interview so that no one can see her. "This is how the journalist Jorge Ramos began his story about arrest he suffered with the team of colleagues from the Univision chain in the presidential palace of Caracas. The head of Chavez ordered their arrest after suspending an interview because he did not like the questions: "We are only experiencing a small test of the harbadment and abuse suffered by Venezuelan journalists since years, "he said.

"The first question I asked Maduro was if I had to call him & # 39; president & # 39; or "dictator", as many Venezuelans say"Said Ramos in a column of New York Times. "I asked him about the human rights violations, the torture cases recorded by Human Rights Watch and the existence of political prisoners." I questioned the claim that he had won the presidential elections of 2013 and 2018 without fraud and, more importantly, his claims that Venezuela is not in a humanitarian crisis. that moment that I got my iPad. "

"The day before I had registered with my cell phone three young men who were looking for food in a garbage truck in a poor neighborhood which is just minutes from the Presidential Palace ", continues the story." I showed these pictures to Maduro. Every second of the video contradicts his official account of a prosperous and progressive Venezuela after twenty years of Bolivarian revolution. At this moment, Maduro has exploded. When the interview lasted about seventeen minutes, Maduro got up, tried to block the images of my tablet in an absurd way and announced that the conversation was over. "That's what dictators do," I say.

"A few seconds after the departure of Maduro, Minister Rodríguez [Jorge Rodríguez, ministro para la Comunicación y la Información de Venezuela] He said that the government did not allow this interview. "The reporter added that the manager "ordered the security agents to confiscate the four cameras and all our production equipment, in addition to the memory cards on which the conversation was recorded." Someone shouted to be immediately removed from the presidential palace, but two government security personnel took me to a small room where they ordered me to give them my cellphone and pbadword. They were worried about the did that he had recorded the audio of the interview and did not wish any leak, but I refused to do it. "

The journalist ends the story by saying that what he has experienced with his team of journalists is "only a tiny proof of the harbadment and abuse that Venezuelan journalists have been suffering for years." In our team, two Venezuelans – the correspondent Francisco Urreiztieta and the cameraman Edgar Trujillo – would have been exposed to terrible risks if they had remained in their country. Fortunately, we all returned safely to Miami, United States. But our cameras and interview records remained in Venezuela, like all mobile phones of my colleagues. "What's Maduro afraid of? I should allow the world to watch the interview.If he does not do it, he will only have proved that he behaves exactly like a dictator."

S.D.