A Popular Unity Party official threatened Rayma Suprani after the publication of a cartoon making reference to a new telecommunications project.
(IPYS-Venezuela/IFEX) – On January 24, 2011, Rayma Suprani, a cartoonist for the Venezuelan daily “El Universal”, received a threat via the social network Twitter from an account which belongs to Lina Ron, an official for the Venezuelan Popular Unity Party (UPV in Spanish) and a political activist who supports Hugo Chávez. The threats were in response to a Suprani cartoon published that same day by “El Universal”.
The cartoon was making reference to an underwater cable which will join Venezuela with Cuba and Jamaica in an effort to improve telecommunications between those countries. The drawing showed a cable with the text, “Cable to Cuba” and next to it, the same cable in the shape of a noose which read: “Cable to Venezuela”.
Among the threatening messages sent from Ron’s account (@LinaNRonUPV) the following stands out: “We are going to use that rope on you for being apátrida (unpatriotic), for being pitiyanqui (a yankee wannabe) and for being disloyal to Venezuela”.
Suprani reported the incident to the Venezuelan Journalists Association.
IPYS-Venezuela condemns these threats which are an attempt to silence Suprani and the opinions she expresses daily in her cartoons.
