Miami Herald journalist Jim Wyss released by Venezuelan authorities

[Eugene]

Source: The Guardian

Miami Herald journalist Jim Wyss released by Venezuelan authorities

Tom Dart and agencies
theguardian.com, Saturday 9 November 2013 23.28 GMT

An American reporter who had been held by Venezuelan authorities since Thursday was released on Saturday, according to the Miami Herald.

The Herald reported on its website that Jim Wyss was released from a detention facility in Caracas and handed over to US embassy officials. The newspaper's executive editor, Aminda Marques Gonzalez, said on the website: "Jim is safe and soon will be reunited with his loved ones."

Wyss later sent a message on Twitter thanking the Herald and others who worked to secure his speedy release.

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Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/09/miami-herald-jim-wyss-venezuela-detained

[Socialistlemur]

1. I guess they realized messing with the media will cost them

The regime must have understood the signal sent by the media, which reacted quite fast to the arrest, publishing quite a few headlines about it. Arresting the guy because he was trying to find out about food shortages and smuggling along the border was really uncalled for. But that's the typical reaction of a secretive and reactionary regime like Maduro's, which is showing more and more its Castroite repressive pedigree.

[Marksman_91]

2. It's becoming increasingly harder for fascist regimes to hide the truth

Thank goodness for modern technology and the ability to take photographs, videos, and messages and being able to share them with the rest of the world in only a matter of seconds. This is why dictatorships are slowly (but not quickly enough) coming to an end: they simply don't have the means to hide the truth any longer, and people every day have more access to tools and mediums to learn about the truth that is out of the governments' controls. With the exception of North Korea (and even then to a certain extent), fascist regimes are having it harder to maintain total control of what people can see about the going-ons within their countries' borders. Cuba itself is now changing its policies and are allowing a free private market to flourish, effectively marking the beginning of the end of their failed "socialist" system, at least at a slow pace. And when the Castros are dead (which I wouldn't be surprised if it happens in the next couple of years), you can bet your ass they're gonna start allowing even more capitalist activity to happen within Cuba. Maybe the US will even lift the embargo by then.