The attempts of the Bush government and the Colombian oligarchy to discredit Telesur [a new pan-Latin American TV channel based in Venezuela] before it officially begins its transmissions, shows that the project in on the right track and that the empire [the United States] wants to close this window that will show Latin Americans a reality that they have never seen with the "objectivity" of CNN.

Hugo Chavez speaks next to a statue of Simon Bolivar, the South American Liberator, in Lima, Peru.

President Hugo Chavez, in telephone call to a Venezuelan State TV program less than two days ago, analyzed the decision by the U.S. Congress to beam programming to counter the transmissions of Telesur into Venezuela. On the matter he said:

"The imperialist giant is entering a dangerous stage of desperation, and there is nothing more dangerous that a desperate giant. Everyone is witness to the efforts that have been made by the imperialistic government of the United States to isolate the Venezuelan government. But nevertheless, the results have been just the opposite, and this has worked like something of a boomerang. In the last few months our proposals have advanced much more than at any other time."

Some of the "advances" referred to are the agreements signed with the governments of Brazil and Argentina, in the case of Petrosur [a joint oil company amongst the three countries], PetroCaribe [an energy-security cooperative] with 13 heads of State in the Caribbean and the approval of a document that will create PetroAndina [similar to PetroCaribe], endorsed within the framework of the 16th Summit of the Andean Community.

Remember that Telesur is a project that transcends the Venezuelan border and which proposes that ideas that go out over the air waves have complete freedom of expression: "I hope critics of my government see that I am the greatest critic of my own actions," said Chavez.

Telesur's First Broadcast on Sunday

U.S. SIGNALS AND ELECTRONIC WAR

The Bush government seems to have gone into a panic when Telesur announced that correspondents in several U.S. cities would let us see what they have up to now denied us, that the "American dream" has turned into a nightmare and that the light of truth might slip through and break the grip of corporate television ... and that will once and for all disprove "Mr. Danger's" unremitting accusations against the administration of President Chavez. ["Mr. Danger" is a reference to President Bush].

For that reason, the proposal made by American senators is no surprise to anyone. And for that reason Chavez's answer was concrete, precise and proper: "The time to be withdrawn and silent is in the past. We used to fall back and turn the other cheek, as Christ said. But after the coup d'état in April of 2002, both of our cheeks turned purple."

[Editor's Note: Actually, it was a member of the House of Representatives, not the Senate, that introduced a bill authorizing the U.S. government, "to initiate radio and television broadcasts that will provide a consistently accurate, objective, and comprehensive source of news to Venezuela." The lawmaker that introduced the bill was Florida Congressman Connie Mack].

"If the U.S. government dares to take any action, whatever it may be - for example, if it issues very powerful [TV] signals - well, then, there will be electronic warfare," declared President Chavez, and he recalled that, "If Fidel Castro has been able to neutralize the signal of Radio Martí, than we will also neutralize any signal."

IMPACT

But beyond the attempts to scuttle the launch of Telesur, the people of South America have expressed their hope that the TV project will try to change how we see ourselves.

Sergio Arelovich, Professor of Political Economy at the National University of Rosario, Argentina, in a letter sent to this reporter, indicates "this birth (that of Telesur) has a significance that cannot as yet be determined."

Reflecting on the issue of the media on our continent, Professor Arelovich points out in his letter that "the major media try to homogenize the heterogeneous, artificially erasing differences. This is a problem and inhibits the full expression of multicultural richness.

Andres Izarra, president of Telesur

In his touching but analytical letter, Arelovich says: "If we wanted to make a partial list of guiding principles, it would say (that Telesur must): INFORM even if news is unwelcome; COUNTERINFORM in the face of the discourse of empire; It should have its OWN AGENDA and not one that the mass media seeks to impose; It should create a space that is accessible to the COMMUNITY; and it should not limit itself to the consumption of information from outside, but include information from within civil society."

In a happy coincidence for Latin America, someone whose thoughts are in synchrony with Arelovich is Minister of Communication and Information and President of Telesur, Andrés Izarra, who pointed out that the channel is "a powerful tool for integration ... more than a simple television channel. I believe that it is indeed a step, a way, a freeway, by which we are going to make Unasur a reality, the Union of Nations of the South."

[Editor's Note: Izzara resigned his post as minister of communication and information on Tuesday, saying that he wanted to assure that Telesur would not suffer from charges of a conflict of interest. The Venezuelan government has a 51% share in Telesur, with Cuba, Argentina, and Uruguay making up the other 49%].

From Venezuela's perspective, Telesur represents a scenario, a danger to the enemies of integration and for those that want to divide and dominate us.

BIRTH UNDER FIRE

Jose Vicente Rangel, the vice president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, characterized the measures adopted by the American Congress to resist Telesur as "a great victory."

When doing an analysis of the imperial mechanisms, he said, "At bottom is the application of the same format that has been applied to Cuba for 50 years without result. It is the same experience as Radio Martí in Cuba."

The Venezuelan vice-president sees no problem in that, "as there is a Telesur, there can be a TeleBush, this means nothing in particular."

In summary, Telesur represents the chance to see what they have hidden from us, for example:

-- The United States has 40 million people in poverty

-- 30 million consumers of illegal drugs

-- It is a country with the world's largest fiscal deficit

-- It maintains a center of torture in Guantanamo

-- It does not obey international law

-- It jails journalists for not revealing their sources

Who in their right mind thinks that Bush would tell these things to the world? Even with this situation, TELESUR is a reality and will be a channel that will represent us like the sun setting in the Americas, like the spirit of our Liberators, like what we have always been, and what they wish to not to acknowledge.

[Editor's Note: "The Liberators" is most likely a reference to Simon Bolivar and and those that accompanied him during his war against the Spanish in Latin America two hundred years ago. This is probably a metaphor for "small" independent countries standing against the percieved imperialism of the United States. Those the author refers to at the end of the last paragraph as not wishing to acknowledge Latin America - again - is likely a reference to the United States, regarded by many Latin Americans as heavy-handed, regarding the region as its "backyard"].