CARACAS (Reuters) – Venezuela will pull the plug on 29 more radio stations, a top official in President Hugo  Chavez’s government said yesterday, just weeks after dozens  of other outlets were closed in a media clampdown.

Infrastructure Minister Diosdado Cabello closed 34 radio  stations in July, saying the government was “democratizing”  media ownership. Critics say the move limits freedom of  expression and has taken critical voices off the airwaves.

The powerful Chavez ally has threatened to close over 100  stations in total, part of a long-term campaign against private  media that the government says are biased against Chavez’s  government.

“Another 29 will be gone before long,” he told thousands of  Chavez supporters at a political rally, without giving details  which stations would be closed or when.

Cabello also said he was launching a new legal case against  Globovision, the country’s most prominent anti-government  television network, accusing it of inciting a coup against  Chavez.

Text messages circulated last week in Venezuela saying a  coup against Chavez was imminent. Other messages circulated  among Chavez supporters calling for them to be on the alert.

The government quashed the rumors quickly and said all  military units were acting normally.

“They (Globovision) aired a tape supposedly with telephone  messages calling for a coup d’etat,” said Cabello, a member of  Chavez’s inner circle who took part in the president’s first  bid for office — a violent and abortive coup in 1992.

Chavez was himself ousted for 48 hours 10 years later in a  short-lived army rebellion after he won office democratically.  That putsch had the support of some of the country’s television  companies.

In 2007, Chavez took revenge, refusing to renew the  concession of Venezuela’s oldest and most widely watched  private station, RCTV, which is now visible only on cable.
Chavez has long threatened to close down Globovision on  similar grounds and the government has slapped it with big  fines and legal cases this year.