[NYTr] Venezuela, RCTV & Telesur, the Media and Propagamda
 
Date: Mon, 18 Jun 2007 17:30:52 -0500 (CDT)


Via NY Transfer News Collective  *  All the News that Doesn't Fit
 
[Interesting if irritating article by the Times' Simon Romero on
Telesur's head, who left RCTV to work at the new satellite network.
He says RCTV practiced a form of "media terrorism." 

Other reports of opposition inside Venezuela, possible protests during
the Copa America soccer games, and Venezuelan gusanos in the US. -NYTr]

excerpted from VIO Venezuela News Roundup - Jun 18, 2007

[A poll has found that the non-renewal of RCTV's broadcasting license
is unpopular with the Venezuelan public, Reuters reports.  The New York
Times reports on the progress of another broadcaster, Telesur, which is
headed by the ex-employee of RCTV Andres Izarra.  A regional network
financed by the governments of several Latin American nations, Telesur
has a mandate to provide rigorous and objective coverage of regional
issues that favors local points of view.  Izarra explains his decision
to leave RCTV and join Telesur, saying "RCTV practiced a form of media
terrorism... The families that own RCTV hate my guts for saying that,
but the oligarchy that once controlled Venezuela is finally coming
apart."  The New York Times also reports today on pro-government civil
society organizations based in the Caracas slums that have gained
attention in debates surrounding RCTV.-VIO]

The New York Times - June 16, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/16/world/americas/16izarrap.html

Building a TV Station and a Platform for Leftists

By Simon Romero

CARACAS, Venezuela - At the headquarters here of Telesur, the regional
Spanish-language network financed largely by Venezuela's government, an
anchor reads a bulletin describing a meeting of landless peasants in
Brazil. Producers receive a report from Bolivia on a meeting of Andean
leaders. On a talk show, intellectuals discuss trends in Caribbean
cinema. An advertisement celebrates the broadcast of a documentary on
the life of Che Guevara.

Less than two years old, Telesur is seen as this hemisphere's answer to
Al Jazeera, a Latin American network aimed at fostering integration and
countering the influence of news organizations like CNN. The man
guiding this experiment is AndrC)s Izarra, a rising star of President
Hugo ChC!vez's ambitious project to upend elites in Venezuela and
elsewhere in the region.

Mr. Izarra, 38, was a news director at RCTV, the network recently taken
off the air in the government's move not to renew its license, until he
quit during the 2002 coup against Mr. ChC!vez, complaining of pro-coup
coverage.

Since then, he ascended quickly through the highest ranks of
government, becoming Mr. ChC!vez's communications minister and now
president of Telesur, a project at the forefront of Mr. ChC!vez's
efforts to assert greater state control of the news media.

While protests have convulsed Venezuela in recent weeks over Mr.
ChC!vez's move against RCTV, Mr. Izarra has emerged as a passionate
defender of the decision.

"RCTV practiced a form of media terrorism," Mr. Izarra said in an
interview. "The families that own RCTV hate my guts for saying that,
but the oligarchy that once controlled Venezuela is finally coming
apart."

While the old oligarchy is undone, a new political elite is emerging in
Venezuela, comprised of officials who support Mr. ChC!vez as a foil to
the United States government and, not incidentally, have benefited from
the changing order.

His critics call Mr. Izarra an apparatchik, someone who has defended
Mr. ChC!vez's media policies for personal gain, a charge he denies. Mr.
Izarra said he admired the president's capacity to stand up to the
United States policies of "sabotage and containment."

Hastily eating take-out sushi at his desk here, Mr. Izarra said he and
his wife could no longer comfortably dine in restaurants. "I become the
subject of verbal abuse when I go into a public place," he said,
explaining how walking around Las Mercedes, the chic district where he
lives, had become difficult.

DESPITE projecting an intensely partisan personal image, Mr. Izarra
says he is tolerant of different opinions in his family or in Telesur's
studios. He said 120 of Telesur's 400 employees were opponents of Mr.
ChC!vez, acknowledging that he kept tabs by using lists of voters and
their political sympathies, available here on pirated software.

He says he never dreamed of working in a profession that did not
revolve around a newsroom. But his departure from RCTV in 2002 led him
into other worlds. Cast into the wilderness as far as privately owned
media here were concerned, he first returned to CNN as a field producer
during a general strike that paralyzed the economy in 2002 and 2003.

"AndrC)s was far from being a Chavista when I met him," said Lucia
Newman, who was Mr. Izarra's boss as a senior Latin America
correspondent for CNN.

"But he found himself in a position in which he had to choose sides,"
said Ms. Newman, who now covers Latin America for Al Jazeera
International, describing Mr. Izarra's trajectory after his work for
her. "In a general sense, I think he's now a true believer."

Mr. Izarra crossed into politics definitively when he took a job in
media relations for the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington after his
stint in Caracas for CNN. Then, at the age of 35, he was given charge
of Mr. ChC!vez's personal television show and a growing portfolio of
other responsibilities.

"The pace of working alongside ChC!vez isn't easy for anyone," said JosC)
Roberto Duque, a writer and journalist who was hired by Mr. Izarra to
help retool Venezuela's state news agency by drawing inspiration from
Cuba's Prensa Libre and Spain's Agencia EFE. "He matured immensely, and
intensely, during that time."

Mr. Izarra started in journalism while living in France after he left
university studies here in economics, writing for a magazine published
by his uncle, who was jailed in Venezuela in the 1970s for leftist
political activities.

His father, William Izarra, a retired air force officer and a political
scientist, is one of the chief theorists of Mr. ChC!vez's political
movement.

STILL, Mr. Izarra seems an unlikely Chavista. He had a privileged
upbringing, attending Santiago de LeC3n, an elite school in Caracas. He
speaks flawless English, having also attended public schools in Newton,
Mass., while his parents did graduate work at Harvard. He spent nearly
five years working in the United States at CNN and NBC before returning
to Venezuela.

Now he is in the middle of the debate over the closing of RCTV, even as
Telesur plans to expand into Europe, Brazil and perhaps the United
States, using Internet-based broadcasting technology. The network,
which has more than 10 bureaus overseas, including Cuba, Nicaragua and
Haiti, is opening two more in London and Madrid.

Last year Telesur and Al Jazeera announced a content-sharing agreement,
which was derided by Connie Mack, a Republican congressman from
Florida, as "creating a global television network for terrorists."

Such statements, Mr. Izarra said, have only given Telesur greater
legitimacy among its viewers. Compared with the Venezuelan government's
main television network, which ruthlessly disparages Mr. ChC!vez's
critics, Telesur's tilt left is more moderate. The network's mission,
he said, is "to advance integration while portraying Latin Americans as
we see ourselves."

Cookie-cutter anchors are not part of this project. Instead, a
ponytailed journalist with a 5 o'clock shadow discusses the news each
morning. A diversity of accents from correspondents from around the
region reflects the countries supporting Telesur, which include
Argentina, Brazil, Cuba and Nicaragua.

But this is Venezuela, where politics intrudes even into life's most
intimate spaces. During his time as communications minister, Mr. Izarra
met Isabel GonzC!lez, a former anchor at GlobovisiC3n, Venezuela's only
remaining opposition television network.

They married soon after Mr. Izarra was interviewed on her program and
have a 1-year-old daughter. Mr. Izarra has a 14-year-old son from a
previous marriage.

His wife remains an outspoken critic of the government. So is his
mother, Viviana GarcC-a, a retired university professor. And his wife's
stepfather, Antonio Ledezma, heads an opposition political party.

"We do not discuss politics when the family gets together," Ms. GarcC-a
said. "Unfortunately, this is a situation common to many Venezuelan
families at this time."

                                  ***

Reuters - June 17, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/17/AR2007061700695.html

Most Venezuelans back student protests: poll

CARACAS - A majority of Venezuelans support student protests over the
closure of an opposition television channel, a poll showed on Sunday,
despite President Hugo Chavez insisting the demonstrations were part of
a U.S. plot to topple him.

Chavez replaced RCTV, the country's oldest broadcaster, with a state
network last month. Since then, there have been regular protests by
thousands of students accusing the president of undermining democracy
in the OPEC nation.

A Datos poll of 600 Venezuelans across social classes found 56.2
percent supported the students, with only 23.8 percent opposed to them.

Of the rest of those surveyed, 19.3 percent had no strong opinion and
0.7 percent said they did not know or did not want to reply.

The poll, published in newspapers on Sunday, was conducted on June 8-10
and had a margin of error of 4 percentage points.

Chavez, a frequent and vocal critic of the United States who was
reelected by a landslide in December on the back of his generous social
spending, dismissed the poll in his weekly television show on Sunday.

"This is all part of the conspirators' plan," he said. "This is an
attempt to incite them."

Chavez has accused the students of being part of a U.S.-backed "soft
revolution," saying they are trying to model their protests on the 2004
"Orange revolution" in Ukraine.

His supporters argue the students are using gestures seen in the
ousting of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in 2000 and Georgia's
2003 "Rose revolution," giving flowers to police and spelling out
"Freedom" with their bodies.

Chavez's critics argue his moves against the media are further evidence
of centralization after the president politicized the military,
judiciary and oil industry.

Chavez is considering indefinite reelection, has won powers to rule by
decree and is forging a single governing party to steer his self-styled
socialist revolution.

The Datos poll found 66.9 percent of respondents opposed the closure of
RCTV. This chimed with a survey from Datanalisis in April that found
nearly 70 percent opposed the shutdown, often citing the loss of their
favorite soap operas.

Chavez also has threatened to muzzle Globovision, Venezuela's last
remaining mainstream opposition channel, if it does not stop inciting
protests.

The Datos poll found 75 percent would oppose Globovision being pulled
off the air.

Only 7.6 percent of respondents thought the main pro-government state
channel, praised by Chavez, was "good" or "very good." Datos found 81.1
percent of viewers thought it was "bad" or "very bad."

                                 ***

El Universal - June 18, 2007
http://english.eluniversal.com/2007/06/18/en_pol_art_chavez-urges-univers_18A887119.shtml

ChC!vez urges university students to stop "sterile debate"

President Hugo ChC!vez urged both university students and all sectors in
general "to break up with the classic schemes imposed by the
bourgeoisie" to debate domestic issues. However, he warned that debate
should run parallel to actions, "some people like discussing during
their lifetime, but they do nothing to change the country's reality."

"In my view, debates should be held about the reality we are living,
rather than unreality." ChC!vez invited university students to talk
about large estates, industrial development, the national energy
project, the role of the Armed Force, and foreign relations. "There is
not one single issue we are not willing to discuss. But we cannot take
part in a sterile debate, and daily cries and slogans -which are often
empty. No. Let us face reality."

ChC!vez branded the university students who have staged street
demonstrations, rallies and protests over the last three weeks to
demand respect for freedom of expression and civil rights as
"opposition students," who say what they have been told. According to
ChC!vez, the university students are told what to do by "people who
purport to be leftist, but rather they are extreme rightists and
plotting against the revolution."

ChC!vez said he was "proud" of the university students supporting his
government, whom he called "Bolivarian students."

The Venezuelan ruler urged the people to stay on alert as destabilizing
plans "have been reactivated."

                               ***

The Washington Post - June 16, 2007
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/06/15/AR2007061502304.html

Venezuelan Emigres Find Common Ground in Anger

By Pamela Constable

It was a tiny gesture of protest: a dozen college students flagging
down cars for an hour on Embassy Row this month, wearing symbolic white
gags across their mouths and holding up posters that quoted Albert
Camus and Walt Whitman on the importance of free speech.

But the anger of these Venezuela-born young people -- furious at the
shutdown of a popular private TV channel in Caracas -- reflected the
fast-rising political fervor that is gripping Venezuelan immigrants in
the United States after years of private frustration over the
tightening revolutionary grip of President Hugo Chavez. "I want to go
back to a country where I am free to criticize and express my thoughts,
but the government is trying to change the laws and indoctrinate the
population," said Merquit Garcia, 21, an American University student
who attended the protest. "Venezuela is divided now. Half the people
see Cuba as a model, and half see it as a threat," she said. "The
future is very unclear."

In Venezuela, the recent forced closure of Radio Caracas Television has
convulsed the oil-rich South American nation, leading to massive street
protests and sharpening the class divisions that Chavez's socialist
policies and defiant anti-Americanism have been creating since he came
to power in 1999.

In the Washington region, where a few thousand Venezuelan immigrants
have long blended into quiet suburbs and professional settings, dozens
of prominent refugees from the Chavez era have joined the community. In
Miami, where tens of thousands of Venezuelans have built an active and
influential enclave, the crisis in Caracas, the country's capital, has
unleashed a parallel frenzy of meetings, protests and preparations to
receive a small but growing wave of political refugees.

Virginia Contreras, a resident of Germantown, is a former Venezuelan
judge and diplomat for the Chavez government. In 2001, she quit as
Venezuela's representative to the Organization of American States and
has become an outspoken critic of Chavez's rule, which she says has
steadily eroded democratic freedoms while proclaiming itself to be a
champion of the poor and a prototype of modern socialism.

"It is not just a bad government; it is a totalitarian government,"
said Contreras, 49, who often visits Miami and Caracas to work with
opposition groups.

She called Chavez a "snake charmer" who is trying to create a
"constitutional dictatorship" but is increasingly alienating the
public. The closure of Radio Caracas Television, she said, "touched
something vital. Now everyone can see what he is trying to do."

Venezuela's ambassador in Washington, Bernardo Alvarez, said that the
TV station's closure has been misunderstood and that freedom of
expression is a "pillar" of Venezuelan democracy. Venezuelan officials
accused the TV station of collaborating with Chavez opponents during a
short-lived coup in 2002.

"There is clearly a debate in Venezuela, but the media should not abuse
public space for anti-democratic actions or to work to destabilize the
government," Alvarez said.

Alvarez said that the Chavez government had no intention of creating
another Cuba and that foreign critics were viewing its policies through
a distorted prism. "They need to take off their Cold War lenses and get
new ones that reflect the new reality" of Latin American politics, he
said in a telephone interview Monday from Panama.

Chavez has built an enormous following among Venezuela's poor, who have
benefited from his assistance programs and been inspired by his
rhetoric of social transformation. Among affluent citizens, however,
the fear of a Cuban-style revolution has grown steadily, prompting a
surge in political refugees from a country that historically has
produced very few.

Since 2004, 3,778 Venezuelans have applied for asylum in the United
States, and nearly half their cases have been approved, according to
U.S. immigration officials. In the three years before Chavez took
office, there were 328 applications, and fewer than 20 percent were
approved.

An estimated 300,000 Venezuelan immigrants, students, refugees and
their families live in the United States.

"Some of them have been persecuted directly, and others are fleeing the
system that makes them less free," said Elio Aponte, a former
Venezuelan scientist and software company official. He lives in Miami
and heads an exile organization that helps new arrivals apply for
asylum, usually after landing at Miami International Airport. Most
Venezuelans arrive there on tourist visas. "We are helping 80 to 100
people every month, and more are coming every day," Aponte said.

Miami is also a longtime nerve center of Cuban exile politics, and
Venezuela's problems have resonated sharply within its Cuban community.
U.S. Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Florida Republican and Cuban emigre,
has asked the Bush administration to offer Venezuelan refugees the same
fast-track rights to asylum that Cubans have received for years.

There is no indication that such a legal change will be made, however,
and relations between Caracas and Washington, though strained, are more
complex than the entrenched hostility between the United States and
Fidel Castro's Cuba. For one thing, the United States is a major
consumer of Venezuelan oil, the country's major resource.

Moreover, human rights groups in the United States, although strongly
critical of the media crackdown and other steps by Chavez, have stopped
short of labeling him a dictator. They describe his regime as
systematically politicizing state institutions and weakening the rule
of law but not as using official violence to quash dissent.

"People in Venezuela do not get killed or disappeared like in Colombia
or put in prison for exercising free speech like in Cuba," said JosC)
Miguel Vivanco, a Washington-based official of the group Human Rights
Watch. He said that the Chavez government had used the court system to
harass opponents and that the TV shutdown was "a very serious setback,"
but that there was still room for opposition groups to function. "We
should not jump to the stereotype that this is a one-party or
totalitarian system," he said.

But from the viewpoint of exiled officials such as Luis Giusti, the
former head of Venezuela's national oil company who lives in
Washington, the Chavez revolution has destroyed his country's
institutions and is well on the way to snuffing out its democratic
traditions.

"It is a national tragedy," Giusti said in his office at the Center for
Strategic and International Studies.

And for students such as Carla Bustillos, 27, who is studying law at
American University, the recent shutdown of Radio Caracas Television
was a shocking act that propelled her into action.

"I grew up in a democracy, and so did my parents," she said while
picketing outside the Venezuelan Embassy on June 1. "We grew up
watching RCTV. Then on Sunday night, the screen suddenly switched to an
imposed socialist channel. That's why we are protesting. If we lose the
freedom of speech, everyone, including Chavez supporters, will lose it,
too."

                                    ***

AP via The Miami Herald - June 18, 2007
http://www.miamiherald.com/583/story/143269.html

Chavez warns against opposition-led protests during Copa America 

By Christopher Toothaker
The Associated Press

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuela president Hugo Chavez warned Sunday that
government opponents were planning to interrupt Copa America in
Venezuela by staging streets protests and possible transportation
strikes.

Chavez urged authorities - including Venezuela's Armed Forces and state
intelligence services - to neutralize any effort aimed at disrupting
the tournament, which is being hosted in Venezuela for the first time
from June 26 to July 15.

"This plan continues developing. We are defeating it, but they are not
going to give up," said Chavez, speaking during his weekly radio and
television program. "No more surprises. We won't let them put us on the
defensive. We don't lose the offensive impulse."

Sitting at a desk in front of a crowd gathered at a cattle ranch in Los
Llanos - Venezuela's heartland - Chavez read a column published in the
pro-government VEA newspaper, stating that radical groups "are looking
for the transportation sector to call a national strike ... and have
the protests coincide with Copa America to create national and
international commotion."

The Copa America, South America's soccer championship for nations, this
year will include the United States and Mexico as invited guests.

The Venezuelan leader did not elaborate on the alleged plans or what
groups might be involved, but he noted the newspaper column pointed to
"conspirators" purportedly behind recent student protests.

University students who have led the recent protests - most of them
against a government decision that forced an opposition TV station off
the air - deny they plan to disrupt Copa America. But students have not
ruled out the possibility of peaceful demonstrations during the
tournament.

Chavez has derided student protesters as U.S. "pawns," saying they do
Washington's bidding by taking to the streets. Students reject the
allegations as totally unfounded, arguing university groups have taken
it upon themselves to protest government efforts aimed at muzzling the
opposition.

Venezuela's government has spent at least US$1 billion to construct two
new stadiums, remodel seven others, and renovate airports and
surrounding areas for Copa America. Tens of thousands of soccer fans
are expected to travel to Venezuela for the tournament.

Chavez told his audience the tournament would be "a historic event,"
but lamented that he would miss the inauguration due to an upcoming
foreign tour.

"The teams are starting to arrive, there's happiness," he said.
"Venezuelans, the people, the local governments, are working hard to
decorate the cities and finish the stadiums." 
       
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