- The relentless propaganda campaign being
waged by the Bush administration and the controlled press against Venezuela's
President Hugo Chávez appears designed to prepare public opinion
for a U.S.-led overthrow of the most progressive elected leader in Latin
America.
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- "Venezuela is currently under attack.
Bombs are not being dropped from airplanes but rather from media outlets,
wrapped in paper and ink," a recent media study from the Venezuelan
Ministry of Communication and Information says.
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- "Ever since the election of George
W. Bush, Venezuela has been the target of a growing misinformation campaign.
This foreign policy strategy appears to be synchronized with coverage by
various publication and media outlets, which spread misleading and biased
news on a daily basis, shaping negative opinions about Venezuela's democracy
in the U.S.," the study conducted in 2005 reported.
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- "The aim is to isolate the Venezuelan
government through the repetition of false statements, stereotypes, and
the exploitation of fear within American public opinion," the study,
which analyzed media coverage in the dozen largest U.S. media outlets,
found.
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- The U.S.-based propaganda campaign is
clearly designed to malign Chávez and his Bolivarian Revolution
by misrepresenting the progressive reforms occurring in Venezuela. Because
such intense propaganda campaigns usually presage a pre-planned attack,
it is important to understand how the controlled media distorts the image
of the popular Venezuelan leader.
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- The Bolivarian Revolution is a revolution
"on which silence has been imposed," Ernesto Cardenal, the Nicaraguan
poet and priest wrote, "because it has been decided so by the powerful
world media, in the hands of international corporations.
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- "The Venezuelan revolution goes
against their interests; therefore, the world does not hear anything about
it. When the most important misinformation companies mention Venezuela,
they only talk about the opposition, or try to ridicule and caricature
the figure of President Chávez, but they never mention there is
a revolution going on," Cardenal wrote.
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- The Venezuelan government's analysis
of U.S. media coverage from early 2005 found three common negative storylines
being put forward in the controlled press bolstered by unsubstantiated
arguments.
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- The first negative storyline is that
Chávez supports international terrorism. The allegations used to
support this are that the Venezuelan leader supports guerrilla groups and
"terrorist organizations," that he harbors Colombian guerrillas,
and that he is not tough enough on terrorism.
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- Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN) promoted the terrorist
allegations during a recent session of the House International Relations
Committee in which Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice discussed the Bush
administration's position on Venezuela.
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- On Feb. 17, Burton asked Rice about the
allegations that Chávez is planning to donate $50 million to Hamas,
the Palestinian organization that recently won the election in the occupied
territories.
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- "It's a known terrorist organization,
and I'd just like to know what the administration is going to do, and is
doing, to deal with President Chávez," Burton asked.
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- "But in reality," Katherine
Lahey wrote in Counterpunch, "it is that little by little, this resistance
[of Chávez], in combination with the empowerment of the Venezuelan
people, damages their own terrorist campaign and domination, and that they
fear that this process will empower and inspire other oppressed people
to rise up, to organize, to reclaim their humanity and their society."
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- The second negative storyline is that
Chávez poses a threat to democracy. Arguments used to support this
storyline are that Chávez has started an arms race, that Venezuelan
weapons could wind up in the hands of terrorists, and that Chávez
is interfering in the internal affairs of other countries and destabilizing
democracy in the region.
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- The third negative storyline is that
Venezuela under Chávez is moving towards autocracy. The arguments
used by the controlled press to support this storyline are that Chávez
does not respect human rights and imprisons political opponents, Venezuela
does not adhere to standards of democracy, and being democratically elected
is not enough to be considered a democratic government.
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- The negative stories use a number of
strategies to achieve their propaganda effect, including: presentation
of opinions as facts, quoting anonymous sources, falsification of facts,
and repetition of false statements.
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- One repeated propaganda story is that
Chávez is seeking a military confrontation with the United States.
Venezuelan purchases of military equipment for defending its borders and
sovereignty are misrepresented as being a threat to the United States.
To stress the danger that Chávez supposedly poses to the U.S., the
controlled press often mentions Venezuela's alleged acquisition of Russian
MiG fighter jets although no such purchase ever took place.
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- Chávez is, according to the Bush
administration, concentrating power in his own hands. This is precisely
the false allegation put forth by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld
when he recently compared the democratically elected Chávez with
Adolf Hitler.
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- Chávez has also been accused of
failing to respect private property in a country where less than 5 percent
of the population owns 80 percent of the land. About the disparity of land
ownership, Chávez has said, "A democracy that allows such a
situation of unfairness is losing its democratic character."
- The unfair criticism of Chávez,
a progressive elected American leader, comes from officials of the un-elected
Bush administration which provides billions of dollars in U.S. funds and
military support to real dictators and criminal regimes, including those
with illegal nuclear weapons.
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- Hugo Rafael Chávez Frias came
to power in Venezuela in 1999 after winning a sweeping victory in democratic
elections. Chávez had campaigned on promises to end corruption,
institute constitutional reform, distribute the nation's oil wealth more
fairly, and reform political institutions. After seven years in office,
these remain the fundamental goals of the Chávez government.
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- "Chávez represents a populist
backlash against Venezuela's entrenched power élite, whose corruption
and ineptitude had virtually bankrupted the oil-rich Caribbean nation,
Time Europe wrote at the end of 1999. "he is part of a broad wave
of unease across the continent at the wrenching changes of free market
privatization and globalization that have often failed to deliver economic
promise to more than a favored few."
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- During a recent three-week sojourn in
Venezuela, American Free Press found abundant evidence that the reforms
of the Bolivarian Revolution are being achieved and are being supported
by the majority of the population. We also found that the U.S.-backed opposition
controls major Venezuelan press outlets. The Venezuelan people and media
seem more free to express criticism of their government than their U.S.
counterparts.
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- Chávez, the son of two school
teachers and an engineer by training, is an avid reader who speaks frequently
to the people of Venezuela. Educating the people is a corner stone of the
Bolivarian Revolution.
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- A shop keeper told AFP how Venezuelans
have had to learn new ways of doing things as a result of the reforms of
Chávez. In his case it meant having to learn to keep basic business
records in order to be able to provide accounting records and taxes to
the government.
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- "Why is Venezuela a threat to the
U.S.?" the Venezuelan media study asks. The Bolivarian Revolution
of Chávez is a threat to the U.S., it says, because it provides
an example for others to follow:
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- "The real Venezuelan threat consists
of teachers, doctors, athletes, coaches, and volunteers. This battalion
of hope is distributing books and vaccines to the poorest and most secluded
slums and towns and reinvesting the country's oil revenues for the benefit
of all Venezuelans. Venezuela has a vibrant democracy, one in which popular
participation is the key to success. This is a democratic model that aims
to uphold national identity and values, secure the nation's sovereignty,
and promote a multi-polar international order that guarantees peace and
respect for all nations."
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- While the Bush administration and the
corporate-controlled press repeat their mantra that Chávez is "isolating
Venezuela from the rest of the world," the facts show otherwise. Using
its immense oil wealth to benefit its people and neighbors throughout the
region, Venezuela under Chávez has become the engine for a unified
South America. Chávez has also signed trade agreements and alliances
with France, Spain, China, Russia, Iran, Qatar, and India.
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- Chávez actually seems to enjoy
being criticized by the Bush administration and representatives of what
he calls "the assassin and genocide empire." "Let them attack
us and call us what they like," Chávez says. Then using his
favorite quote from Don Quixote, he says, "Let them bark, Sancho,
if they bark it's because we are riding."
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- Cartoon by Steve Bell of The Guardian
(UK).
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