18 C. The statements of State officials prior to the decision not to renew RCTV’s concession 75. Starting in 2002, agents of the State, among them the President of the Republic, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (hereinafter “President Chávez”), went on record stating that the concessions of certain private media outlets in Venezuela were not going to be renewed. Some of these statements were cited by the Commission in Merits Report No. 119/06 and in the application filed with the Inter-American Court in the Case of Ríos et al.: a) The statement made by President Chávez on June 9, 2002, during his program “Aló Presidente”, in which he said the following: “Even when they are privately owned, television and radio stations are only operating under a concession. The State is the owner […] the State authorizes a group of businessmen who ask for permission to use them as operators, so that they can send images down that pipe; but the State reserves the right to grant that permission. It’s like someone who wants to use a water pipe that belongs to the State to distribute water to a town, and the State gives them permission. […] Let’s suppose that […] we give them permission to use the water pipe […] [and] they start to poison the water […] immediately their permission would not only be revoked, they’d also be thrown in jail. They are poisoning the people and exactly the same thing 42 happens, it’s the same logic, the same explanation with a television channel [...]” ; b) The statement that President Chávez made on December 8, 2002, on his program “Aló Presidente”, where he said the following: “All the private television companies, without exception, the big television networks at the service of a destabilization plan […] are playing the same reckless, coup-plotting role as they were in April, led by people who seem to have lost all capacity for dialogue […] for making amends, for awareness of the tremendous responsibility they have when the State grants them a concession to […] direct or manage a television network […] and if they engage in reckless lies, campaigns, editorializing […] it is a frenzy of sick activity that causes serious psychological harm to the Venezuelan people […] it is a terrorist’s plan. Using all the technology at their command, their journalists, editors, production teams […] sowing shock and outrage in a population that is sometimes defenseless, vulnerable […] We can’t permit the 43 population to be abused like that” ; c) The January 12, 2003 statement that President Chávez made on his program “Aló Presidente”, where he said the following: “The same goes for these television network owners and radio station owners; they, too, have a concession from the State, but the signal does not belong to them. The signal belongs to the State. I want to make that very clear, I wanted it clearly understood because if the owners of these television networks and radio stations remain bent on their irrational aim to destabilize our country, to give subversion a foothold, because it is subversion, without question, […] In this case it is fascist subversion egged on by the media, by those gentlemen whom I have mentioned and others whom I will not. So I am letting Venezuela know. I have ordered a review of all the legal procedures by which these gentlemen obtained concessions. We are reviewing them and if they do not resume their normal use, if they continue to use the concessions to try to disrupt the country, or overthrow the government, then I would be compelled to revoke their 44 concessions to operate television networks. ; d) The statement that President Chávez made on his program “Aló Presidente” that aired on November 9, 2003, in which he said the following: “I will not let you do it again. […] Globovisión, Televén, Venevisión, and RCTV, […] I have ordered [Minister] Jesse Chacón: you must have a team of analysts and observers watching all the networks simultaneously, around the clock. And we must be clear, I am clear, about the line that they must not cross, and they should know; it is the 42 Transcript of the program “Aló Presidente” No. 107 that aired on June 9, 2002, page 19, available at: http://www.alopresidente.gob.ve/materia_alo/25/1663/?desc=alo_presidente_107_desde_el_chivo_zulia_venezuela.pdf; IACHR, Application filed in the Case of Ríos et al. v. Venezuela, April 20, 2007, para. 72. 43 Transcript of the program “Aló Presidente” No. 130 that aired on December 8, 2002, pages. 4 and 20, available at: http://www.alopresidente.gob.ve/materia_alo/25/1685/?desc=alo_presidente_130_palacio_de_miraflores_caracas_domingo_8_de_ diciembre_de_2002[1].pdf; IACHR, Application filed in the Case of Ríos et al. v. Venezuela, April 20, 2007, para. 75. 44 Transcript of the program “Aló Presidente” No. 135 that aired on January 12, 2003, Año 16 # 008-23/04/07, Depósito Legal PP-88-153, pages. 6-7, IACHR, Application in the Case of Ríos et al. v. Venezuela, April 20, 2007, Annex 47.