Journalists from teleSUR and Venezolana de Television (VTV) were arrested today in Honduras while a curfew has been lifted in the country. This afternoon, Hugo Chávez called the crisis in Honduras 'an explosive situation'.
"They told us we should leave the country because our security wasn’t guaranteed and we were at risk here," said Larry Sanchez, a Telesur technician who was among those who were detained. "‘We have intelligence and we’re following you,’ they said."
After the coup, Honduran broadcasters have been harrased, local TV broadcasters have been shut down and several journalists arrested.
teleSUR, a venezuelan based 24 hour news channel, has been the only international TV network to show 24 hour continuous report from Honduras. Even CNN en español, the cable rival of teleSUR, added teleSUR images to some of their reports even when they have reporters working in that country. In latin america teleSUR is the clear winner, broadcasting live footage of the events that CNN en español ignored or reported from a 80's latin american right wing perspective that has become archaic and obsolete in the region. For example, CNN en español received heavy criticism in the spanish speaking world for calling the coup a forced succesion (see video, second 00:34). Some bloggers in the region compare teleSUR meteoric rise in Latin America to the momentum achieved by Al Jazeera in the Middle East region.