I used to argue that Russia was one of the easiest places in the world to get thrown in prison over practically nothing – just ask Jamison Firestone or Yana Yakovleva – but Hugo Chavez appears to making Venezuela into a new contender for the title.

Chavez’s latest prisoner is the opposition media owner Guillermo Zuloaga, who although had been targeted by prosecutors many times in the past (a judge was once even fired for refusing to order a bogus arrest), had more or less been allowed to continue working.  Not any longer, and the circumstances of his arrest and imprisonment couldn’t be any more ironic:  he appeared before the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA, or SIP in Spanish) and remarked that there you can’t say that Venezuela has freedom of press when the state uses its power to shut down media.  That taboo statement, and perhaps more, is what put the bracelets on Zuloaga.

Just a thought, Hugo – if you wanted to prove Zuloaga wrong, wouldn’t you just let him go free?