32 84. In addition, on April 13, 2007, during a celebration of the people’s victory of April 2002, President Chávez stated: “However, we will do everything possible – and we must – to neutralize any attempt of magnicide. There are some people who continue to support this thesis; but there are others, perhaps more intelligent, guided by North American intelligence agencies, who are again planning, not a magnicide, because some of them are afraid of the people’s response, to the army’s response. Rather they are planning new acts of economic destabilization, political destabilization, social destabilization. And, they are trying to use the date of next May 28, when the concession ends to a television channel that has caused a lot of harm to Venezuelan society. The concession ends and the government that I head, using a legitimate right, has announced this decision, and I want to repeat this – however much they yell, however many insults they throw at us, even at me personally, I am not going to respond to their provocations; forget it! However much international pressure they elicit or try to elicit, the decision has been taken. That television channel’s concession is not going to be renewed. They know it and therefore they are trying to set the stage to attack the people, attack the government, to cause acts of violence that justify any action that could bring down the Bolivarian Government. I recommend them, I recommend them to forget this. I politely recommend them to forget those plans because they have no probability of succeeding. Things will go badly for them if they try and do this. So, they have said that they are preparing a ‘May 28’ plan; well, we are preparing a May 29 plan. And I call on the whole country, I call on all the people to stay mobilized. From now on, every day in May, in June and always, but especially in this situation. Mobilized in Caracas, throughout the country – political leaders, governors, mayors, intelligence agencies of the Ministry of the People’s Power for the Interior and Justice, the Ministry of the People’s Power for Defense, civil intelligence agencies, military intelligence agencies; all of them mobilized and making plans to neutralize any attempt of internal or external aggression against Venezuela. And, don’t forget, any aggression against us should be used by the revolution to increase the changes, to accelerate the changes. So – if they start an attack – welcome. We will know how to neutralize it and respond to it to continue the Bolivarian revolution, building Venezuelan socialism.”126 85. In addition to the declarations made by government officials and President Chávez, the State published and distributed the “RCTV White Paper.”127 This publication alleged that the decision not to renew the RCTV concession was driven by “the demands of Venezuelan civil society owing to serious breaches of social responsibility by RCTV,”128 because the channel had “supplanted the political actors and fabricated its messages; it had violated freedom of information, incited civil war and the coup d’état, attempted to undermine the balance of powers and established economic cartels, among other conducts that did not conform to the social responsibility that the State and society require of it. These are entrepreneurs who are using a portion of the electromagnetic spectrum.”129 Furthermore, the decision was allegedly based on the strategy “to change the communications model in Venezuela, under which the owner of the media outlet is also the owner of all its messages.”130 86. The publication also indicated that, under article 108.5 of the LOTEL, concessions for use of the electromagnetic spectrum would not be granted when serious situations relating to State security arose that, in the opinion of the President of the Republic, made it inadvisable to grant them. Therefore, “it was ‘inadvisable’ for the Venezuelan State to renew the RCTV concession [based on its] actions during two episodes that endangered democracy and human rights in Venezuela, which were the coup d’état of April 2002 and the strike in the oil sector of December 2002 and January 2003.”131 126 Declaration of President Chávez during a celebration of the people’s victory of April 2002, on April 13, 2007. Transmission of the Ministry of the People’s Power for Communications and Information of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela and the National Radio and Television Network (CD, Video, Presidential network broadcast, minute 2:15:58) 127 MINCI, RCTV White Paper, Venezuela: March 2007, 1st edition (evidence file, folios 3198 to 3381). 128 MINCI, RCTV White Paper, Venezuela: March 2007, 1era (evidence file, folios 3246 and 3247). 129 MINCI, RCTV White Paper, Venezuela: March 2007, 1st edition (evidence file, folios 3247 and 3248). 130 MINCI, RCTV White Paper, Venezuela: March 2007, 1st edition (evidence file, folio 3269). 131 MINCI, RCTV White Paper, Venezuela: March 2007, 1st edition (evidence file, folio 3269). The White Paper also underlines that “RCTV has provided explicit evidence of its participation in the coup d’état, not only by the broadcasting images that revealed the presence of its director general, Marcel Granier, in the Palacio de Miraflores during the unconstitutional swearing-in of the businessman Pedro Carmona as illegitimate President of Venezuela, but also by its editorial position, the diffusion of false information, political propaganda, and applying censorship” (evidence file, folio 3270).