CARACAS, Venezuela, July 24 (UPI) -- International observers say President Hugo Chavez is ramping up pressure on the dwindling number of independent media outlets in Venezuela.

The pending Sept. 26 legislative election appears to be the incentive for Chavez to crack down on broadcasters that have been critical of his regime, leaving the mass media in the hands of outlets that are consistently supportive of the government.

"His goal is to silence the opposition completely and to have a democratically elected dictatorship,' Susan Kaufman Purcell, the director of the Center for Hemispheric Policy at the University of Miami, told the Miami Herald.

The Herald said Saturday that most of the pressure has been focused on the television station Globovision, which has been critical of Chavez. The government responded by issuing an arrest warrant for the company's president.

Media analysts told the Herald that Globovision was the last major Venezuelan outlet not under Chavez's thumb with the September elections looming.

Chavez has frequently assailed Globovision and other opposition media as trying to stir up trouble by misleading the public.