Chavez RCTV Closure Rejected by 70% of Venezuelans, Poll Finds

President Hugo Chavez's refusal to renew Radio Caracas Television's broadcast license next month is opposed by almost 70 percent of Venezuelans, making it the least-popular move of his eight-year presidency, Caracas pollster Luis Vicente Leon said.

Some 69.4 percent of respondents surveyed by Leon's Datanalisis firm said they disapprove of Chavez's pledge to let the television network's license expire, while 16.4 percent said they support it. The survey of 2,000 Venezuelans, conducted between April 9 and April 16, has a margin of error of 2.2 percentage points.

Only Chavez's proposals to use Cuba as an economic and political model for Venezuela have received similarly high levels of opposition, Leon said today in a telephone interview.

Resistance to closing the 54-year-old RCTV network, which draws the largest audience in Venezuela, is due more to a desire for free choice among channels than for free speech, Leon said.

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