[News] Letter from Venezuela's Communications Minister to the Washington Post

[Anti-Imperialist News]

Letter from Venezuela's Communications Minister to the Washington Post

March 26th 2008, by Andrés Izarra
Jackson Diehl
Deputy Editor, Editorial Page
The Washington Post
1150 15th Street NW
Washington, DC 20071
March 25, 2008


Dear Mr. Diehl,

Over the past several years, we have informed you 
of our concerns regarding the hostile, distorted 
and inaccurate coverage of Venezuela in your 
newspaper, and particularly on the Editorial 
Page. Previously, we communicated our alarm at 
the unbalanced reporting and writing on Venezuela 
during the period 2000-2006, which evidenced 
one-sided analyses and false claims regarding 
President Chávez's tendencies and events within 
the country. Since then, however, the Post 
coverage has gotten worse. More editorials and 
OpEds have been written this past year about 
Venezuela than ever before, 98% of which are 
negative, critical, and aggressive and contain 
false or manipulated information. We are 
therefore led to believe that the Washington Post 
is promoting an anti-Venezuela, anti-Chávez agenda.

President Chávez has been referred to in 
Washington Post editorials and OpEds during the 
past year as a "strongman", "crude populist", 
"autocrat", "clownish", "increasingly erratic", 
"despot" and "dictator" on 8 separate occasions 
and his government has been referred to 7 times 
as a "dictatorship", a "repressive regime" or a 
form of "authoritarianism". Such claims are not 
only false, but they are also extremely 
dangerous. The U.S. government has used such 
classifications to justify wars, military 
interventions, coup d'etats and other regime 
change techniques over the past several decades.

Far from a dictatorship, President Chávez's 
government has the highest popularity rating in 
the Venezuela's contemporary history and Chávez 
has won three presidential elections with 
landslide victories and several other important 
elections, including a recall referendum against 
his mandate in August 2004, which he won with a 
clear 60-40 majority. Hugo Chávez is the first 
president in Venezuela's history to include the 
country's majority poor population in key 
decision and policy-making. The creation of 
community councils that govern locally and the 
increase in voter participation are clear signs 
of a vibrant, open democracy, demonstrating that 
Venezuela is far from a dictatorship.

The Editorial Page inaccuracies and distortions 
extend beyond the mere labeling of President 
Chávez. On more than 11 occasions, editorials and 
OpEds have falsely claimed that President Chávez 
"controls the courts and the television media". 
Venezuela has five branches of government - all 
of which are autonomous from one other by 
Constitutional mandate: the Executive, the 
Legislative, the Judiciary, the Electoral and the 
People's Power. Unlike the United States, which 
allows for the Executive to appoint supreme court 
justices, in Venezuela, the high court 
magistrates are determined through a selection 
process and a vote in the National Assembly. The 
Executive branch in Venezuela plays no role in 
the assignment of judges to the courts. 
Communications media in Venezuela continues to be 
majority controlled by the private sector, 
despite what the Post Editorial Page claims.

Post editorials and OpEds also erroneously 
referred to the constitutional reform package 
last December on more than 8 occasions as 
enabling President Chávez to "rule indefinitely" 
or become a "de facto president-for-life". The 
Constitutional reform did seek to abolish term 
limits, but not elections. Venezuelans would 
still have the right and duty to nominate 
candidates and vote for them in transparent 
electoral processes. Interestingly, the Post made 
no similar accusations against President Alvaro 
Uribe of Colombia when he twice made moves to 
change constitutional law to permit reelection to 
a second term. Uribe succeded in 2004 and is now 
again seeking to amend that law so he can run for 
a third term. Where are the Post's cries about 
dictatorship and de facto president-for-life in Colombia?

The Post has also severely manipulated and 
outrighted censored information about economic 
growth in Venezuela. Twice, recent publications 
on the editorial page described the Venezuelan 
government economic measures as "disastrous, 
crackpot economic policies". Under Chávez's 
economic policies, extreme poverty has diminished 
to an all-time low of 9.4% (2007) from a high of 
42.5% in 1996. Unemployment has been reduced to 
6.9% (2007) from 16.6% in 1998. Minimum wage has 
been raised substantially during the Chávez 
government to become one of the highest in the 
developing world, and there has been a 
significant reduction in Venezuela's public debt. 
Chávez also paid off Venezuela's loans to the 
World Bank and International Monetary Fund and 
has increased investment in the nation's agricultural production industry.

Nevertheless, the Post fails to reflect any of 
these positive, progressive advances in its 
coverage and statements on Venezuela. Instead, 
Post editorials are dedicated to accusing 
President Chávez of engaging in an "arms race" (4 
occasions), "violating human rights" (3 times), 
"facilitating/endorsing drug-trafficking" (6 
times) and "promoting an anti-American agenda" (6 
times). Worst of all, despite Chávez's own 
statements to the contrary, the Post continues to 
perpetuate the dangerous myth that Chávez is an 
"anti-semite" "aligned with terrorist nations or groups" (9 times).

Mr. Diehl, you should certainly know that the 
United States is currently waging an 
international war against terrorism. Within that 
framework, the Bush administration has clearly 
stated that those nations associated with or 
friendly to terrorist states or groups can be 
subject to preemptive invasion or intervention. 
Are you seeking such an end in Venezuela?

Your editorial on February 15, 2008, "Mr. 
Chávez's Bluff", goes one step too far. The piece 
is an outright call for a boycott of Venezuelan 
oil, an act that would irreparably harm both the 
peoples of Venezuela and the United States. As 
the Post applauds the mafia tactics of one of the 
world's wealthiest corporations, ExxonMobil, it's 
evident that its allegiance lies with corporate profits over people's rights.

And your latest editorial on March 5, 2008, 
"Allies of Terrorism" is well beyond a mere 
criticism of President Chávez's policies; it's a 
direct threat to the people of Venezuela. By 
accepting at face value - with absolutely no 
investigation or verification - the documents 
alleged to have been found on a computer 
belonging to Rául Reyes from the FARC, the Post 
recklessly condemns both Venezuela and Ecuador as 
nations that promote and harbor terrorism and 
justifies the most violating, reviled and 
dangerous Bush doctrine of modern times: 
Preventive War. By comparing Colombia's violation 
of Ecuador's sovereignty to a US attack against 
al-Qaeda, the Post shamelessly validates the most 
irrational war in history and calls for its 
expansion into Latin America. We find the Post's 
defense of the violation of Ecuador's sovereignty 
and its satisfaction with such aggressive - and 
illegal - tactics, together with the warning that 
Venezuela is in "danger", extremely disturbing.

We are outraged with the Washington Post's 
editorial coverage of Venezuela. The Post was 
once the bastion of genuine investigative 
reporting and truth-seeking. Those days are well 
gone and the Washington Post has now become 
nothing more than a tabloid serving special 
interests. The noble principles Eugene Meyer 
envisioned for the Washington Post in 1935, 
including "telling the truth as nearly as the 
truth can be ascertained", "telling ALL the truth 
so far as it can be learned, concerning the 
important affairs of America and the world and 
"the newspaper shall not be the ally of any 
special interest, but shall be fair and free and 
wholesome in its outlook on public affairs and 
public persons," have been violated by editors 
like you, Mr. Diehl, who have chosen to promote a 
harmful personal agenda instead of ensure the 
ongoing greatness of your newspaper.

Sincerely,

Andrés Izarra
Journalist
Minister of Communication and Information
Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
Source URL: http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/
Printed: March 28th 2008




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