AT&T pressured to defy censors backing Maduro
Last April, as a military uprising roiled Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro’s socialist government ordered pay TV providers to immediately cease transmission of CNN and the BBC.
DirecTV, which is wholly owned by AT&T, quickly obliged, yanking the two networks off the air as live images of military trucks running over protesters were being broadcast to the world.
Now, pressure is building against the Dallas communications giant to stand up to Venezuela’s government censors.
In December, officials from the State Department met in Washington with executives from AT&T to urge them to help pull the plug on Maduro’s propaganda machine, according to five people familiar with the discussion.
The meeting followed months of outreach to AT&T by Venezuela’s opposition, according to the five individuals. Under a plan being promoted with the Trump administration, DirecTV, Venezuela’s largest pay TV operator, would restore to its lineup a half dozen international news channels that local regulators have banned in recent years, according to the five individuals.
The strategy harkens back to a Cold War playbook of leveraging information to fight antiU.S. propaganda and undermine authoritarian rule. But instead of covertly beaming U.S.government produced content into foreign countries as Radio Free Europe did in the former Soviet Union, this effort consists of pressuring a private company to bring back access to private, international news outlets that, until recently, Venezuelans took for granted.
AT&T faces a difficult choice: comply with a Maduro regime that the U.S. government no longer recognizes and has heavily sanctioned, or go along with the plan and risk seizure of its installations and the loss of its license. According to corporate filings with the Security and Exchange Commission, the company doesn’t actually need a physical presence in Venezuela to beam content into the country. It could instead use broadcast centers in Argentina, Brazil or California.
The U.S. officials and opposition operators are concerned that DirecTV is being used to broadcast state TV programming by Maduro to attack his opponents, who have no way to respond, according to the five individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was briefed and expressed initial support for the plans to enroll DirecTV to help undermine Maduro, according to two individuals with knowledge of the discussions.
Planning is in the early stages, the two individuals said, and it’s just one of several options under consideration to pressure Maduro, who remains firmly in power even in the face of U.S. sanctions aimed at propping up Juan Guaidó, the opposition leader recognized as Venezuela’s rightful leader by more than 50 nations.
The two individuals said no decision has yet been made on how much to lean on AT&T, which is pushing back strongly against any initiative that would jeopardize operations.
A key to Maduro’s staying power are dozens of governmentcontrolled newspapers, social media accounts and TV channels that have replaced the once highly confrontational private news outlets.