1250 Connecticut Ave. NW, Suite 1C, Washington, D.C. 20036 Phone: 202-223-4975 Fax: 202-223-4979
Email: coha@coha.org Website: tp://www.coha.org
Council On Hemispheric Affairs
Monitoring Political, Economic and Diplomatic Issues Affecting the Western Hemisphere
Memorandum to the Press 05.47
Word Count: 4100
Thursday, 28 April 2005
Chávez Launches Hemispheric, “Anti-Hegemonic” Media Campaign in Response to Local TV Networks Anti-Government Bias
- Telesur, a new network scheduled to cover news throughout South America, is the latest player in Chávez’s war against
opposition media.
- Opposition TV stations resort to unprofessional behavior.
- Will Telesur be objective or doomed to be used as a government propaganda channel?
- Before knocking it, prospective critics should watch to see how Telesur's operations unfold.
In Venezuela, the war for the hearts and minds of its citizens is now in full swing. With the imminent launching of the
government-sponsored Televisora del Sur (Telesur), network control of the country’s existing media, including Univisión
and CNN en Español, might sorely be put to the test. According to plans, the network will start transmitting in late
June or early July and will offer news and opinion programming 24 hours a day. For journalists now being recruited by
Telesur, the creation of the network is long overdue. “Telesur's reason for being is the need to see Latin America with
Latin American eyes,” said Aram Aharonian, its new director. “It's our right to have our own vision of what happens in
Latin America, and not what Europeans or Americans, or whoever, tell us about how we are, who we are.”
It is hardly surprising that this new project is being launched by the Hugo Chávez administration. The Venezuelan leader
has been particularly concerned with increasing his country’s political and cultural independence from Washington. From
the very start, Chávez has had a stormy relationship with his powerful northern neighbor. Chávez, who immediately upon
taking office in 1998 established close-working ties with Washington’s anathema, Cuban President Fidel Castro,
criticized the U.S-led plan for a free trade zone in the Americas and was strongly opposed to the war in Iraq. As a
result, he has long been reviled by the Bush administration. Tensions have been particularly bristling between the two
nations ever since April 2002 when the democratically-elected Chávez was briefly removed from power in a coup. Chávez
accused Washington of sponsoring his attempted overthrow as well as supporting a devastating oil lockout in 2002-2003.
He also bluntly referred to the United States as “an imperialist power” and accused the CIA of having plans to
assassinate him. In a further barb, Chávez declared that if he were killed the United States could “forget Venezuelan
oil.”
Early TV Media Hostility toward Chávez
Within Venezuela’s volatile political environment, the role of the media has often proved critical and Chávez’s
relations with the established networks have been turbulent since the 1998 election. Venezuela’s main TV stations were
owned by powerful billionaire businessmen such as Gustavo Cisneros. The Cisneros Group includes Univisión Communications
and Venevisión. Cisneros, whose net worth in 2003 was estimated at $4 billion, personally sits on the board of
Univisión. The media magnate counts among his friends former U.S. President George H.W. Bush. What is more, according to
Venezuelan human rights lawyer Eva Golinger, the links between the U.S. government and Venezuelan media go far beyond
mere personal friendships. She explained that the U.S. government-funded National Endowment for Democracy and US AID
have provided several millions of dollars to private media outlets in Venezuela to help finance their anti-Chávez
campaign.
Cisneros, a tireless proponent of hemispheric free trade and globalization, quickly fell afoul of Chávez. The Venezuelan
president has tenaciously criticized Washington’s Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA). In return, Cisneros
denounced Chávez for “arrogant abuse of power and authority.” Chávez also has been at odds with Marcel Granier, owner of
Radio Caracas Television (RCTV). When Chávez first came to power, Granier said, many privately-owned TV stations favored
him. “But little by little,” he told Union Radio, “anti-democratic actions, violating the rule of law, attacks on
journalists and attacks against the media have created the current situation. Venezuelan media are very concerned by the
systematic and repeated violation of human rights.” In 2004, Granier and Cisneros controlled more than 60 percent of the
television market in Venezuela.
Media and the Coup of 2002
During the dramatic days leading up to the April 2002 coup d’etat, Venevisión, RCTV, Globovisión and Televen substituted
their regular programming with non-stop vitriolic anti-Chávez propaganda, which some of their staff later acknowledged
as unprofessional behavior. This relentless barrage was interrupted by commercials sponsored by the oil industry
management urging TV viewers to go into the streets. Inflammatory ads blaring, “Not one step backward. Out! Leave now!”
were carried by the stations as public service announcements. Later on the day of the coup, Cisneros allowed his
television station Venevision to serve as the meeting place for anti-Chávez coup plotters. Reportedly, interim coup
president Pedro Carmona was present. As armed confrontations erupted in the streets of Caracas the anti-Chávez media
edited video clips to give the impression that pro-Chávez forces were purportedly firing on unarmed civilians. However,
according to journalist Greg Palast, who spoke to witnesses unaffiliated with either faction, “The shooting began from a
roadway overpass controlled by the anti-Chávez Metropolitan Police, and the first to fall were pro-Chávez
demonstrators.” After three days of anti-government protests, Venezuelan authorities interrupted the transmission of six
TV stations to broadcast a message by President Chávez. In the middle of the speech, the private channels, which had
broadcasted little if any coverage of pro-Chávez demonstrations, divided the screen to continue covering anti-government
protests. Irritated by the media’s decision, Chávez ordered that the private channels be temporarily closed down and
accused them of conspiring to overthrow the government.
TV under the Coup
By the following morning, Chávez had been deposed and the new—if short lived—regime now turned the tables on the flow of
information. After Chávez’s fall, the coup leaders appeared on TV thanking the media for its assistance. For their part,
the stations cheered Chávez’s “resignation.” However, after huge numbers of pro-Chávez supporters had been mobilized and
were marching downtown, the media imposed a news blackout. Instead, the media broadcasted non-stop soap operas and
cartoons. Meanwhile, during the brief Carmona regime, the government-sponsored Venezolana de Television was taken off
the air when police forces loyal to Carmona occupied the Chávez loyalist station. Independent TV stations such as Catia
TV and TV Caricuao reported that their offices were raided by pro-coup police who detained their staff, and confiscated
their equipment.
The Boomerang Effect
According to authoritative Venezuela analyst Greg Wilpert, “The community media were faster and got the message out
before they were all closed down. The alternative media’s broadcasting of the resistance caused it to snowball and to
become increasingly active and eventually unstoppable.” Venezolana de Television later resumed broadcasting when
sympathizers of the regime returned to their old positions. Far from intimidating Chávez, media attacks only served to
embolden the Venezuelan president who charged that the commercial media was engaged in “psychological terrorism.” Chávez
singled out Cisneros as a "coup-plotter" and a “fascist.”
After the coup government was overturned, Chávez came to recognize the importance of community media. The government
soon sat down with representatives of this sector and granted permits to many new, limited-range TV broadcasters,
primarily operating in the central and western region of the country. In a further controversial move, Chávez seized
broadcasting equipment from the 24-hour television news station Globovision. The move did not take Globovision off the
air but the network was unable to broadcast live links to its reporters. The authorities claimed that Globovision was
transmitting on illegal frequencies and that the seizure was not motivated by politics, but rather by existing
regulations.
In a further sign that the political wind was shifting against the established media, some reporters even quit their
jobs. One well known journalist, Andrés Izarra, resigned as production manager of El Observador, a news show broadcast
over Granier’s RCTV. Izarra, who had previous journalistic experience with CNN, declared “I resigned because the station
imposed an editorial line from the top down which censored all information related to chavismo. It was prohibited to
show anyone affiliated with chavismo on the screen.” In a dramatic shift of careers, Izarra, after handling
communications for Chávez’s embassy in Washington, now works as Chávez’s minister of communications and information.
Media and the Oil Lockout
Not to be outdone, anti-Chávez forces organized a lockout in 2002-2003. Again, the role of the media was critical.
According to Golinger, “The four primary [TV] stations suspended all regular programming throughout the duration [of the
lockout]. They broadcast an average of 700 pro-opposition advertisements each day, paid for by the stations themselves
and by the opposition umbrella group, Democratic Coordinator.” Though the lockout failed to dislodge President Chávez,
it proved devastating to the economy and resulted in an estimated $14 billion loss to the nation. After the lockout,
three private TV stations were ordered to pay $2 million in taxes for allegedly providing free advertising to
anti-Chávez forces. RCTV’s Marcel Granier described the government’s clampdown as a "grotesque" assault on freedom of
expression. Chávez meanwhile referred to the high profile businessmen who owned the TV stations as the “four horsemen of
the apocalypse.” Despite this inflammatory rhetoric, a recent article published by the U.S. Newspapers Guild pointed out
that no television station owners or managers had been prosecuted or lost their broadcasting licenses in Venezuela.
State Supported Media: Venezolana de Television
The established TV media lost journalistic credibility during the April coup. In calling for the nation to rise up in
opposition to Chávez, the TV stations displayed blatant political partisanship. However, state-supported media has been
just as biased. Chávez regularly – perhaps excessively— has been known to commandeer the airwaves, including the private
networks, to deliver pro-government speeches at prime time. The president, for example, has made full use of Channel 8,
Venezolana de Television. Though the public network boasts a broad range of cultural, children’s and musical
programming, it also transmits the president’s own TV show, “Alo, Presidente.” On his Sunday program, the colorful
Chávez may belt out Tango-inspired songs along with traditional Venezuelan folkloric tunes, when he is not using the
time to air his political views. On one program in February 2003, Chávez warned the international community, in
particular Colombia, Spain and the United States, to cease intervening in Venezuelan affairs. The next day bombs
exploded at the Spanish and Colombian embassies and the U.S. embassy was shut down for 24 hours following a security
alert. The opposition accused Chávez of inciting the attacks over his “Alo, Presidente” program. However, in February
2005, the anti-Chávez former National Guard General Felipe Rodriguez, known as “the Crow,” was charged with
masterminding the bombings. Despite this controversy, Venezolana de Television’s audience share of the market was less
than 2 percent last year. To compete with the private TV stations the government stated that it would invest $56 million
in state-run TV.
State Supported Media: Vive TV
Another state sponsored station, Vive TV, which was launched in November 2003, promotes “participatory democracy,
solidarity and Latin American integration.” Until January, the president of Vive TV was Blanca Eekhout who cut her teeth
as a founding member and director of Catia TV, a local pro-Chavez TV station based in Catia on the outskirts of Caracas.
She says that in the early days of Vive TV it became clear that “people didn’t just want to see new programming, they
wanted to make it.” Accordingly, adds Eekhout, the station conducted workshops which taught camera work to community
residents. “People from campesino and other movements came to make their own programs.” The station, maintains the
manager, is “based on a new communications paradigm established by the political, social and economic model of the
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela” and broadcasts its cultural, educational, and informational programs for the public
good. In late 2004, Vive TV beamed to 60-70 percent of the Venezuelan population, including Caracas and various other
states, but not the entire countryside.
In contrast to TV stations like RCTV, which airs shows such as “Quien Quiere Ser Millionario” (“Who Wants To Be A
Millionaire“), Vive TV shuns American-style consumerism. According to its website, Vive TV promotes “the common citizen,
the millions of Venezuelans and Latin Americans who have been made invisible by imperialism and its cultural
domination.” Through Vive’s programming, claim the station’s managers, “it is possible to acquaint oneself with the
reality, lives and struggle of people of African descent, indigenous peoples, campesinos, workers, women, men, young
people and children.” As Eekhout further explains, people of color previously “have appeared in the media but in a
stigmatized way; they are shown as marginal people, criminals. They are not shown building, constructing, which is part
of the struggle for the development of the country. That’s one thing we are trying to change.” Eekhout adds that Vive
strives to act as a bridge for Latin America. Ironically, she says, many Venezuelans are more familiar with TV images of
the United States than Latin America. Accordingly, Vive TV sets aside time slots for Latin American documentaries and
cinema. What is more, Vive TV dedicated 4 hours of programming in one week to the Social Forum of the Americas in
Ecuador. According to Eekhout, Venezuelan Indians attended the event and “The [Venezuelan] indigenous movement was
excited; they could see not only movements there, but also their own Venezuelan delegates.”
Analysis of Vive TV
The question however is whether Vive TV is truly independent or simply tows the line. On Vive’s website, viewers may
watch videos from “Diario de Las Misiones,” which shows how ordinary Venezuelans have benefited from a government
program called Las Misiones, which encourages job creation and provides education, health, and food to underprivileged
members of society. However, other programming does not overtly tout government initiatives. For example, one TV report
from Noticiero de Los Trabajadores shows workers at Venepal, the principal paper company in the country, located in
Carabobo state. When the owners halted production in September 2004, workers grew concerned for their economic future.
In the video, there is no reportorial narration and the workers speak for themselves. One worker, who hardly seems to
act as a Chávez regime mouthpiece, lists worker grievances at the plant and asks for the government to address local
problems. In another video shot for Noticiero de Los Trabajadores, a resident of the municipality of Monagas speaks of
the lack of public health infrastructure. Despite the fact that Monagas is located in the state of Anzoategui, site of a
recent oil development, the resident claims that over the last ten years there has been a lack of government attention
to the area. Though the health coverage has improved, he says, this has only come about through popular pressure.
Roll Over Al-Jazeera
Seen against the backdrop of these media developments, the emergence of Telesur hardly comes as a great surprise.
Speaking on his television show, “Aló, Presidente,” Chávez remarked that Telesur will be “a hemispheric, audiovisual
means of communication that shall broadcast the real vision of social and cultural diversity in Latin America and the
Caribbean.” Telesur, which is scheduled to operate as an affiliate of state-sponsored Venezolana de Television, plans to
showcase documentaries, movies and some entertainment programming. However, the network will place strong emphasis on
informative content which shall account for 40 percent of all programming. Telesur will have correspondents in the
United States, Argentina, Colombia, Uruguay, Cuba, Mexico, Brazil and possibly Peru or Bolivia. Currently, Telesur has
about 20 employees. By the time the network is fully staffed and launched, however, that number should grow to 60. In
stark contrast to Univisión celebrity anchor Jorge Ramos, who wears a jacket and tie, Telesur has hired anchor woman Ati
Kiwa, an indigenous Colombian woman who wears traditional dress. According to Aharonian, the governing board of the
company is comprised of “journalists, communicators and people from the Latin American audiovisual world.” The
international directorate is comprised of the president, Andrés Izarra; Aram Aharonian, who is the station’s general
director; Ana de Escalom, of Channel 7 Buenos Aires; Beto Almeida of Brazil’s journalist guild; Ovidio Cabrera,
ex-vice-president of Cuba’s Radio TV; and Jorge Enrique Botero of Colombia, the station’s director of information.
Aharonian adds that none of these individuals, except for Izarra, officially represents the government’s point of view.
Financing Telesur
So far, the Venezuelan government state has contributed $2.5 million to the network. Organizers have sought out
sponsors, but in sharp contrast to Cisneros’ Univisión, Telesur will offer no commercial advertising. Although, adds
Aharonian, “there will be advertisements from private and public institutions, with such sponsors having nothing to do
with the editorial line.” Significantly, Argentina has joined the effort and today Telesur represents a joint venture
involving Venezuela and Argentina. Additionally, Telesur has concluded an agreement to share material with TV Brasil, a
state run company. Uruguay, which recently elected left-leaning president Tabaré Vasquez, has agreed to cover 10 percent
of the new enterprises’ initial costs. According to Izarra, Telesur is the first example of a continental-wide station
owned jointly by a number of governments. For President Bush, the concern must certainly be that this new
“anti-hegemonic” network, as its managers are wont to describe it, could turn into the Al Jazeera of South America.
Telesur has in fact recently signed a cooperation agreement with Al Jazeera, which has been heavily subsidized by the
Qatar government. Under the agreement, Al Jazeera will expand its coverage of Latin America and open a central office in
Caracas. The Caracas office will in turn receive Al Jazeera reports filed from Argentina and Brazil.
The Politics of Telesur
Not surprisingly, Telesur is not without its detractors. Principal among them is Jorge Ramos, the TV anchor at Cisneros’
Univisión, who also mounts his attacks against Chávez from his personal website (www.jorgeramos.com). In his article
entitled “Telesur o TeleChávez,” Ramos writes that creating continental-wide media is a legitimate goal. However, he
adds, “I am very worried that Telesur will become…an international megaphone for Hugo Chávez and his interminable
speeches…Chávez already controls almost everything in Venezuela: the assembly, the constitution, the supreme court and
the army. And Telesur could expand, without controls, his international agenda.” Of course, his critics say that Ramos
has had little to say about the extent to which Univisión and Ramos himself have become mouthpieces for Cisneros.
At the helm of the network, the 59-year-old Aharonian says it is time to wage “an ideological fight.” Incensed by the
biases and shortcomings of mainstream TV coverage of foreign events, he comments that “commercial TV tells us today that
there is a liberating coalition in Iraq saving the Iraqis when we know it is a genocidal invasion.” It is time he says
to “wage [a] battle in the mass field of television. Telesur was born from the conviction that in these days of great
saturation television, it cannot be left in the hands of the enemy. The Venezuelan government has given great importance
to community and alternative radio, but has left the mass media to the enemy.” Aharonian, an Uruguayan who has resided
in Venezuela for several years, is also the director of Agencia Latinoamericana de Información y Análisis-Dos (Alia2)
and the Caracas monthly newspaper Questión. According to its editors, Questión “sees world reality through a pluralistic
vision, independent of the so-called process of liberal globalization.”
Caracas Assures that Telesur will be Independent
In an interesting article entitled “RR: Rhetoric or Reality?” published in the October issue of Questión, Aharonian
sketched out his views concerning social and political changes in Venezuela. Though he is complimentary of Chávez’s
accomplishments in the fields of health and education, he writes that the regime must do more to encourage participatory
democracy in order to give more power to the poor. In another recent article, published in the wake of Chávez’s November
victory in regional elections, Aharonian writes that Chávez must give up his confrontational politics and start to
govern. “The reality,” he writes, “is that the climate of confrontation that Venezuela experienced for years encouraged
a situation in which many governors and mayors elected under the Chávez banner are really not suitable for governance,
they don’t have experience in politics or public administration.” When pressed, Aharonian insists that Telesur will be
completely independent. What is more, Aharonian asks why more people do not voice similar concerns about the
independence of private TV media. In an echo of Vive TV, he remarked to the Mexican daily La Jornada, “We will focus on
doing the opposite of commercial television. We will search out the protagonist role of social movements, people,
communities, and towns.”
Aharonian is joined by Botero who has worked as head of current affairs programming for Caracol Television network. The
Colombian journalist has produced two documentaries, “Como voy a Olvidarte” (How Will I Forget You) and “Bacano salir en
Diciembre” about kidnapped victims of the FARC guerrillas in Colombia. He won the Premio Nuevo Periodismo (New
Journalism Award) for both.
In his native Colombia, Botero fell afoul of the U.S.-supported armed forces. In 1997, FARC leader Alfonso Cano offered
him a rare television interview. Later, Botero says, senior army officials labeled him as a rebel sympathizer. In 2000,
when his network aired some of Botero’s footage showing captive police and soldiers held by the FARC in jungle camps,
the journalist received multiple death threats. Botero’s bosses told him “it was not convenient” to air a new series of
documentaries. He was relieved of his duties at the station but not dismissed. Botero later sent his family abroad and
moved out of his Bogotá apartment. As an employee at Telesur, Botero must surely hope that he will be able to forget the
repressive atmosphere in Colombia. Speaking with the Associated Press, Botero commented that Telesur will broadcast less
U.S. focused news and more from the “voices of new social and political sectors” in Latin America that have been
historically ignored. He added, “A one hour slot is already scheduled during which the communities themselves will
report what they have to say.” Botero also makes the point that in addition to Telesur correspondents, he wants to
develop a network of journalistic collaborators. “We want to contract independent media that have outstanding editorial
lines to be the station’s base of operations in their respective countries.”
Looking to the Future
The debate over TV media and its role in Venezuela will not end any time soon. What is certain, however, is that Chávez
is now in a much more stable situation politically than he was in 2002. Having consolidated power, he may now spearhead
continental-wide media and promote South American unity. “For the first time in the history of Venezuela,” comments
Aharonian, “the earnings of petroleum are reaching the people and the surpluses have given the opportunity to promote
this Latin American project of communicational integration.” Such developments are of great concern to Washington, which
appears incapable of comprehending the extraordinary transformations now occurring in the region.
This analysis was prepared by COHA Senior Research Fellow, Nikolas Kozloff, D.Phil.
April 28, 2005
The Council on Hemispheric Affairs, founded in 1975, is an independent, non-profit, non-partisan, tax-exempt research
and information organization. It has been described on the Senate floor as being “one of the nation’s most respected
bodies of scholars and policy makers.” For more information, please see our web page at www.coha.org; or contact our
Washington offices by phone (202) 223-4975, fax (202) 223-4979, or email coha@coha.org.