Venezuela Launches Campaign to Overcome “Media Terrorism” Before Elections

Mérida, October 24, 2008 (venezuelanalysis.com)– Venezuelan Communication and Information Minister Andrés Izarra introduced a media project Thursday that will inform and remind Venezuelans about the achievements of Venezuela's "Bolivarian Revolution" and counter what Izarra called the "media terrorism" waged by the corporate-controlled media against the administration of President Hugo Chávez.

"We are launching an effort to break through the media siege, and to bring to light the true Venezuela, where good-hearted people are people working to improve the health, culture, and welfare of all Venezuelans, for a Venezuela of faith and hope," Izarra declared.

The project, named Venezuela de Verdad (True Venezuela), will be an "avalanche" of information meant to prepare Venezuelans to see through the "constant media manipulation and dirty propaganda" by opposition groups, said Izarra.

The campaign will include a widely-distributed, short book that documents the government's social programs, promotion of "oil sovereignty," and other achievements over the past decade since Chávez was elected.

As an example of false opposition claims, Izarra pointed out the advertisements funded by opposition groups that say the government plans to seize private property of Venezuelan citizens, issue food rationing cards across the country, and that the Cuban doctors who work in government-funded free community health clinics are actually spies.

Regarding private property, the minister said the government has helped the poor and middle classes to obtain, for the first time ever, their own homes and small and medium-sized businesses, and he pointed out that the government has paid indemnity for all property it has nationalized from transnational companies, in accordance with the national constitution.

Izarra specified that the ministry is launching Venezuela de Verdad one month before the state and local elections, because during pre-election periods the opposition typically intensifies its media campaign.