Venezuela's tax agency ordered an anti-government television channel to pay 2.3 million US Dollars in back taxes, only a day after the station's owner was charged by prosecutors in a separate investigation and troops raided his home.

Globovision channel said the fine and lawsuit were intended to intimidate government opponents and silence the station's strident criticism of President Hugo Chávez.

Venezuela's tax agency said that it is imposing the fine because Globovision failed to pay taxes on advertising during a 2002-2003 oil strike that was aimed at trying to oust Chávez.

Globovision lawyer Ana Cristina Nuñez said the airtime was provided as a donation to non-governmental organizations during the strike, when many advertising agencies had closed their offices. Nuñez said "it's practically an economic shutdown."

Tax agency official Fanny Márquez said the channel owes 5 million bolivars, or $2.3 million, including unpaid taxes, a fine and interest.

The all-news network has been the only anti-Chávez channel on the open airwaves since 2007, when Chávez refused to renew the broadcast license of another opposition channel, Radio Caracas Television, or RCTV.

Márquez said RCTV, which moved to cable and now reaches fewer viewers, also has yet to pay tax authorities for unpaid taxes during the strike. Chávez has long accused Globovision and other private media of conspiring against him. The tax agency began its case against Globovision in 2004.

Yet tensions between Chávez and the TV channel have recently been heating up. State television has been running short advertisements with slogans flashing across the screen labelling Globovision "sick" and concluding: "turn off the illness."

Chávez last week urged his attorney general and telecommunications chief to take action against such private media or resign. He gave no details and named no specific news organizations, but he previously called for sanctions against Globovision and other private media.

The station's director, Alberto Federico Ravell, called the tax agency's fines the latest chapter in "judicial, fiscal and governmental terrorism against Globovision."

This week, prosecutors also opened a second investigation saying that the president of the network, Guillermo Zuloaga, is suspected of an "environmental crime" related to wild animals he has hunted and mounted in his Caracas home. Prosecutors and dozens of National Guard troops arrived at Zuloaga's house to gather evidence. Perla Jaimes, a lawyer for Globovision, said they took the hunting trophies.

Broadcast regulators are also investigating Globovision for inciting "panic and anxiety" during its coverage of a minor earthquake last month, when Ravell criticized the government on the air for its slow response.