Publisher of Venezuela's El Mundo stepping down under `government pressure'

 BY ANDRES OPPENHEIMER

 Teodoro Petkoff, publisher of Venezuela's daily El Mundo and one of the harshest
 critics of President Hugo Chavez, announced Tuesday that he is stepping down
 because of ``tremendous government pressures'' against the newspaper's owners.

 ``For several months, in an effort to maintain a climate of goodwill, I have always
 responded negatively to the question of whether we were suffering some kind of
 pressure,'' Petkoff said in a statement Tuesday. ``But I can now openly state that
 the government has been blackmailing the Capriles family [owners of El Mundo]
 to force a change in El Mundo's line.''

 Under Petkoff, 67, planning minister during the 1994-1999 government of
 President Rafael Caldera, El Mundo had denounced the concentration of power in
 Chavez's hands, while warning of the possibility of a dictatorship in Venezuela.

 In a telephone interview late Tuesday, Petkoff said he is not claiming an overall
 press censorship in Venezuela.

 The pressure on El Mundo is ``a very negative episode,'' he said, ``but I would not
 jump to general conclusions, such as saying that it marks the end of freedom of
 the press in Venezuela.''

 According to Petkoff, the Venezuelan attorney general's office improperly
 intervened in a Capriles family inheritance dispute that was an entirely private
 matter, while tax authorities were demanding extraordinary payments.
 Government officials denied the allegations.

 Attorney General Javier Elechiguerra was quoted by The Associated Press as
 saying, ``it is absurd to claim that the attorney general's office is intervening in a
 private matter.''

 Venezuelan publishers had complained to the Inter-American Press Association
 in October about a proposed constitution that would include demands that the
 media publish ``truthful information'' -- a term they fear could lead to censorship.
 Voters last week approved the new constitution, including that provision.