Venezuelan comedian focuses satire on Chavez

[naaman fletcher]

The bespectacled, quick-witted Marquez has won a loyal following by focusing his newspaper barbs at Chavez, and that has landed his newspaper in trouble and has prompted government officials to accuse him of trying to foment a coup.

The punster's dissections of Chavez's leftist Bolivarian Revolution movement have also earned him recognition from the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, which last month presented him with an International Press Freedom Award as one of Latin America's most courageous newspaper columnists.

"I think they chose me because the situation in Venezuela is awakening more and more concern around the world due to the issue of limitations on freedom of speech, and the committee wanted to call attention to the situation," Marquez said Tuesday during an interview with The Associated Press.

Though he offered some tongue-in-cheek remarks, Marquez also was soft-spoken and serious as he talked about several laws that pro-Chavez lawmakers plan to take up soon, including a measure that would impose broadcast-type regulations on the Internet and one that could endanger the anti-Chavez television channel Globovision.

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