CARACAS, (MILLAT+APP/AFP) – Venezuela’s oldest
daily newspaper, El Impulso, a sharp critic of President Nicolas Maduro, is halting production because of a paper shortage, its publisher said Thursday.
Founded in 1904, the paper will suspend publication from Saturday
because the state company charged with importing paper has stopped delivering its orders, publisher Carlos Eduardo Carmona said.
“The government… is blocking us from publishing daily, leaving us
no choice but to suspend publication,” he said in a statement.
The paper’s editor-in-chief, Juan Carmona, told AFP it would give
employees a holiday through mid-January.
If no paper is received by then, the company will shut its print
edition and maintain only its website — but will not back off its criticalline on the socialist government, he said.
El Impulso is a regional paper based in the western city of
Barquisimeto.
It has complained about paper shortages since 2013 and warned several
times it would be forced to halt publication if no supplies arrived.
The situation only worsened as shortages became the norm amid a
deepening economic crisis in Venezuela, where food, medicine and basic household goods are all scarce.
“This year has been one of suffering,” Carmona said. “We run out of
paper, we call, they deliver it at the last minute. Last month, another newspaper lent us a few spools, but now the (import) company isn’t even answering our calls.”
Just one company, run by the state, is authorized to import paper in
Venezuela. Critics accuse the government of abusing it for political ends.
Maduro, whose popularity has plummeted during the crisis, denies
accusations of censorship. But he has repeatedly accused private media of
supporting the opposition.