CARACAS, Venezuela — One of Venezuela’s leading pro-opposition newspapers has been sold in a transaction shrouded in mystery, fueling growing concerns here over the independence of the news media.

The newspaper, El Universal, whose sale was announced this month, is the third major media outlet to change hands here since the death last year of the country’s longtime socialist president, Hugo Chávez, and the election of his handpicked successor, Nicolás Maduro.

Venezuela is a deeply divided country, where propaganda and the news media have long been part of the political battleground between a powerful leftist state and an opposition concentrated in the middle class and the elite. The government operates at least 10 television stations and more than 100 radio stations, and critics say that independent media outlets increasingly feel pressured into silence or self-censorship.

The two other recent media sales involved Globovisión, a television station that aggressively promoted the opposition’s political agenda, and Cadena Capriles, a newspaper chain that publishes Últimas Noticias, one of the country’s highest-circulation dailies. Under the new ownership, news coverage at both of those outlets became more favorable toward the government.