Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez has forbidden the use of his “name, image and figure” on any kind public building, as well as for use in “political, social and community organizations” and any old advertising campaigns.
The law announced today indicates that the image or name of Hugo Chávez can only be used with previous and explicit consent from the head of state and only for “political and social activities, or pro-Chávez propaganda in posters, banners and/or flyers.”
Specifically the presidential decree prohibits the exhibition of the name “Hugo Chávez” in construction sites, buildings, establishments, enclosures, educational institutions, medical facilities, roads, public spaces and any kind of space occupied by public administrators.
It also forbids political, social and community oriented groups to use the name to “identify organizations, societies, goods, works, projects, programs, social or political activities, etc.”
According to the sources that expedited the new decree, these measures were taken under the premise that the image of Hugo Chávez is “a fundamental part of the illustrative profile of the national presidential institution” and so “it must be used under regulations that allow its proper identification, as far as the honorable role of the president is concerned”
