What is the “Hate Law” governing Venezuela and which the opposition denounces as a form of censorship

The controversy “Hate law” that rules in Venezuela and to which Nicolas Maduro alluded this Sunday in a radio interview to a Buenos Aires media, in which he spoke of the attack suffered by Cristina Kirchner, was described from the beginning by the opposition sectors as a form of censorship for the limits it imposes on the press.

The law was approved in November 2017 by the National Constituent Assembly (ANC). The full name is Law Against Hate and Peaceful Coexistence and authorizes the authorities to punish citizens with jail or fines and media closures “that promote hatred and racism”.

The law punishes up to 20 years of imprisonmentl Acts of discrimination based on race, social background or political ideology, as well as contemplating the closure of the media and parties that promote “fascism”.

“Who publicly (…) incite hatreddiscrimination or violence against a person or group of people because of their actual or presumed belonging to a particular social, ethnic, religious or political group (…) will be punished with imprisonment from 10 to 20 years “, he says Article 20 of the law.

The text also provides for the possibility of punishing police and military personnel who do not prosecute these hate crimes with sentences from 8 to 10 years, the same measure that will be applied to health personnel who discriminate in the provision of care.

The standard was an idea of Nicola Maduro proposed on the occasion of the anti-government protests that took place between April and July 2017 in Venezuela and caused over 120 deaths, dozens of injured and detained.

Article 10 of the initiative declared September 21st National Day of Peace and the month of May of each year as a national month for the promotion of peace, coexistence and the fight against intolerance.

According to the Instituto Prensa y Sociedad Venezuela (IPSyV), during the first three years of validity of the law “at least six press and 17 press officers – for a total of 23 affected – were intimidated, accused, threatened and prosecuted for hatred crimes.

In February of this year, meanwhile, there was a strong controversy when the Venezuelan government ordered the arrest of a 72-year-old woman for making a series of jokes confronting Nicolás Maduro, Hugo Chávez and various Venezuelan officials with arepas. , in a video that went viral on TikTok. She was accused of promoting and inciting violence.

For Maduro, the attack on Cristina “is the result of an accumulation of hate campaigns”

“I am not amazed by what happened to Cristina Kirchner. This assassination attempt marked the entire continent and alarms sound. What happened, why did it happen? It’s amazing that this kind of attempted murder happens in the 21st century, “Nicolás Maduro said in an interview with Radio 10 on Sunday.

“In 2018 I suffered an assassination attempt. The authors of the material were caught and told where they were trained,” compared Maduro, who also linked these attacks to so-called “hate speech”.

“It is the result of a accumulation of hate campaigns, excluding polarization, psychological warfare. People who run big media and networks know the influence that hate campaigns have, “she said.

“No means is forbidden”

There the controversy arose “Hate law”, approved in 2017 in the Caribbean country and which places severe limits on media and social networks. “Enforcing the law is very important. The message of the multiplication of the symbols of death is the worst thing that can happen to a society. The violence comes back to them, “he said.

Maduro denied that there are any media bans in his country, as denounced by the opposition.

“No media is banned in Venezuela, but there are rules why hate messages have limits in the media and networks, “he said, before launching a curious confrontation with pornography.

“What there are are the rules of the game. Pornography, for example, is forbidden. It’s a set limit. Hate messages are forbidden,” he said.

Finally, he analyzed that “the media have their laws everywhere. Social networks respond to regulation only in the United States and the European Union. In the rest of the countries they do what they want, they follow the guidelines of billionaire tycoons”.