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281356Z Jul 05

UNCLAS  CARACAS 002277 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KPAO PGOV VE
SUBJECT: MEDIA PLAY- TELESUR DEBUT AND U.S. 
CONGRESSIONAL RESPONSE 
 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1. Telesur, the regional TV channel backed primarily by 
the Venezuelan government, debuted July 24. Recent 
comments made by officialist press reflect disappointment 
in the United States for what they consider another 
attempt to hinder efforts towards regional integration. 
They further claim the U.S. response to the launch of the 
station demonstrates the American government fears a rise 
in national-patriotic tendencies in South America. 
However, the opposition press is concerned that Telesur 
will hinder the spread of democratic ideals, and welcome 
the United States' efforts to monitor the dissemination 
of Telesur programming. Some opposition journalists have 
already expressed doubts about the success of Telesur 
because of a perceived lack of organization and the 
predictable repeating of the same populist rhetoric. END 
SUMMARY. 
 
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ARTICLES 
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Political analyst Manuel Felipe Sierra commented in 
leading liberal daily EL NACIONAL circ. 120,000 (07/26): 
"Telesur does not bet on integration.  It is rather a 
window to sell the advantages of the unprecedented 
process of democratic deformation that has been taking 
place in Venezuela.  Even though it was premature, the US 
Congress passed an amendment to counteract Telesur 
signal.  At a first glance, this measure generates 
patriotic feelings and it is an obvious meddling into the 
life of the country.   But why are Cuba and Venezuela the 
only countries affected by this extreme measure?  Why not 
any other Latin American nation?   Telesur will be a tool 
`to strengthen the anti-imperialist messages, the Castro- 
Chvez propaganda.'" 
 
Sensationalist daily 2001 circ. 90,000 (07/27) 
editorialized: "Telesur is not an instrument for 
integration; it is rather a means of exporting the 
Bolivarian revolution.  The first Sunday broadcast did 
not make any impact at all.  With Tiro Fijo as an 
interviewee and the anti-imperialist message as a slogan, 
there are a number of reasons to say that the Channel 
started off with the wrong foot because it doesn't 
respond to the feeling of most of the people." 
 
Journalist Marianella Salazar commented in leading 
liberal daily EL NACIONAL (07/27): "The first broadcasts 
of Telesur reminded me of the sixties.  Yesterday, 
Telesur broadcast a documentary on Fidel Castro and Che 
Guevara.  Castro and Che are two complementary models of 
Marxist-Leninist terrorism.  Che's message has been 
`hatred as a factor of fight' Will that be the message 
and the model that will be heard by the audiences of the 
South American countries?  The revolution is now on the 
air, that's why Che and the sixties are back in fashion: 
utopias, fanaticism, the new wave, `the new man', 
socialism, popular songs, comrades, marihuana, 
revolutionary order against the bourgeois order." 
 
Columnist under the pseudonym of Marciano (reportedly the 
Venezuelan vice president Jos Vicente Rangel) wrote in 
pro-Government daily tabloid DIARIO VEA 
circ.25,000(07/27): "The proposal of the Republican right 
in the House of Representatives proposed by legislator 
Connie Mack illustrates the current policy of the mafia 
that runs the US.  It is, in fact, the application of a 
policy similar to that applied against Cuba, which is a 
complete failure.  It is stupid to think that the US 
administration will be successful by repeating in 
Venezuela the frustrated experience of `Radio Mart.' 
What good things can the Bush administration disseminate 
e 
about the American democracy when Venezuelans know very 
 
 
well the stark reality that nation lives: poverty and 
social inequality, a precarious electoral system and the 
genocide action against other peoples like in the case of 
the invasion of Iraq?  Stupid gringos, don't you learn 
from history!" 
 
Columnist Clodovaldo Hernandez wrote in conservative EL 
UNIVERSAL circ. 120,000 (07/22): "The United States 
intends to bombard Venezuela but not with napalm, like in 
Vietnam, or with bombs, like in Afghanistan or Iraq but 
with objective news.  The attack will be preemptive and 
seeks to counter the hemispheric brainwashing the 
Venezuelan `regime' plans to do through Telesur, a weapon 
of mass destruction more lethal than those Saddam Hussein 
had hidden in his palaces - according to gringos' 
objective news." 
 
A column by Journalist and radio and TV host Roberto 
Giusti in EL UNIVERSAL(07/23), read: "The decision of the 
US House of Representatives is a mistake because 
Venezuela is still far away from being Cuba, where there 
is a sole media owner, a single message and one way of 
addressing the news.  In our country there are still 
media outlets and journalists willing to counteract, and 
in fact they do, the twisted or biased information that 
comes from the government-run communication platform.  In 
Venezuela, the freedom of information and the right of 
the citizens to be informed is fully guaranteed thanks to 
those media and journalists, despite the governmental 
actions, harassment, and the laws that aim at reducing 
the spaces of the freedom of speech.  In conclusion, we 
don't need a version of radio Mart in Venezuela." 
Political Analyst Columnist Alberto Garrido wrote in 
conservative daily EL UNIVERSAL (07/22): "The decision of 
the US House of Representatives to 'counteract the anti- 
American sentiment' of the newly-born Telesur is, 
technically, in the framework of the concept of fourth- 
generation war.  One of the most important elements of 
the fourth-generation wars is the use of the media to win 
the psychological war.  The war of information between 
the United States and Venezuela seems to announce the 
beginning of the end of a stage, marked by the priority 
of the oil business, and the beginning of another one, 
where the voice that will be heard the most will be that 
of the Pentagon." 
 
Journalist Earle Herrera commented in liberal El MUNDO 
circ. 45,000 (07/25): "Gringos have a wrong concept of 
the Venezuelan opposition members: they consider them to 
be stupid.  Now the House of Representatives passed an 
amendment in order to protect local opposition members' 
minds.  Rarely has a group been insulted so much under 
the pretext of protecting it from a bad influence. 
Republican senator from Florida (from where else?), 
Connie Mack, made a speech that would have cracked 
senator Mac Carthy up, and succeeded in having the House 
of Representatives pass the refered amendment Gringos 
underestimate not only the opposition but also their own 
media outlets, which is outrageous." 
 
An editorial in pro-government daily tabloid DIARO VEA 
circ. 25,000 (07/25): "Venezuelans already know that the 
U.S. Senate passed a decision to bombard Venezuela with 
TV programs. . The Bush administration's decision implies 
a new intervention against Venezuela and also against the 
countries that made the sovereign decision to join the 
Telesur project.  The imperialist circles show their 
desperation as the national-patriotic tendencies in South 
America increase." 
 
Journalist and Venezuelan Ambassador to Mexico wrote in 
leading opposition EL NACIONAL (07/26): "Telesur already 
frightened US most conservative sectors. The American 
decision to invade the Venezuelan radio-electric spectrum 
with clearly destabilizing media garbage indicates that 
the Bolivarian government's permanent warning of the Bush 
administration's imminent direct aggressions and 
interventionist attitude was true.  It seems to be that 
 
 
the Bush administration got tired of acting through 
intermediaries and now wants to repeat in Venezuela the 
fiasco of TV Mart.  For the gringos it is unacceptable 
that Latin Americans have an option to CNN." 
 
Another column in EL NACIONAL by political analyst 
Alberto Barrera (07/24) read: "The reaction of the US 
House of Representatives on Telesur seems to foster this 
plan instead of counteracting it.  Before going on the 
air, Telesur has already turned into a power.  By wanting 
to attack it, they strengthen it.  Everything backfires 
for the US.  After all these years, they still don't know 
who we are, what happens to us.  The Bush 
administration's policies are a bunch of wrong moves, 
arrogance and sheer ignorance: in fact, they still don't 
know what world they live in." 
 
 
BROWNFIELD 
 
 
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      2005CARACA02277 - UNCLASSIFIED