The company AT&T announced Tuesday that it will “immediately” abandon the Venezuelan pay television market, as US sanctions prohibit its DirecTV platform from broadcasting channels that the government of Nicolás Maduro asks it to do.
As reported by the AP agency, the Dallas-based company said its decision to close its unit will be effective immediately.
“Because it is impossible for the DirecTV AT&T unit to comply with the legal requirements of both countries, AT&T is forced to close its pay TV operations in Venezuela, a decision made by the company’s leadership in the United States without any participation or prior knowledge of the DIRECTV Venezuela team, ”the company said in a statement.
Without mentioning the AT&T decision, the head of the ruling National Constituent Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, stated: “We do not care about the proposals that imperialism can make.”
“We have shown that we are not slaves to anyone, nor have we been nor do we want to be,” Cabello added, in a broadcast on state television.
AT&T was Venezuela’s leading pay TV provider and was one of the last major US companies still operating in the crisis-ridden country.
An investigation by The Associated Press in January found that AT&T was under pressure to comply with orders from the Maduro government regulators to remove about 10 channels, such as CNN en Español, which have broadcast anti-government protests and critical coverage of the country for the past year. .
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