[Cincinatus' Wife]

Hugo Chavez's Latin Al Jazeera***Dressed down in their best proletarian duds, sympathizers of the FARC Marxist paramilitary take to the streets brandishing their best hammer and sickle flags. Manuel Marulanda Vélez, chief leader of the terrorist group, makes an appearance. An ominous voice takes the screen: "Who will judge the U.S. military personnel caught trafficking drugs and arms in Colombia?"

This isn't a commercial for Al Jazeera, but that would be a close guess. It's a promotional campaign for a continent wide, pan-American satellite news channel that made its debut on July 24.

Witness Telesur, the brainchild of Cuban communist Fidel Castro and his ideological spawn Hugo Chávez. They say that it was created to both compete with foreign media conglomerates and offer a side of the news that is uniquely Latino. Independent, they say, from any voice but that of the people. The truth, however, is far from their propaganda platforms. Telesur is being funded by the leftist governments in Uruguay, Argentina, and Cuba, with Venezuela alone controlling 51% of the company. It will be housed in Caracas at the headquarters of Venezuela state media, where Chávez regularly opines for hours on end about impending imperialist invasion to the delight of only 2% of the Venezuelan public. …………………***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

U.S., Venezuela clash over drug trafficking - revokes visas of two Venezuelan generals***CARACAS - The U.S. government has revoked the visas of two Venezuelan generals, including the head of a counter-drug unit, and a third officer who have been linked to drug trafficking allegations, U.S. officials confirmed Thursday.

The news came four days after leftist President Hugo Chávez said he was ending cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, accusing it of ``using the war on drugs as a cover, even to support drug trafficking, [and] to gather intelligence in Venezuela against the government.''

U.S. relations with Chávez have grown increasingly tense amid Washington complaints that he has turned to authoritarian ways and become a destabilizing factor in Latin America. In turn, he has accused the Bush administration of plotting to topple him.

The latest spat could lead the U.S. government to deny its annual recertification, due next month, that Venezuela is collaborating in the U.S. war on drugs. Decertification can mean the loss of U.S. financial assistance. But according to the U.S. embassy, Caracas receives no such aid, leaving Washington without financial leverage against Chávez.

''I was already thinking of decertification as more than likely'' for Venezuela, said John Walsh, a specialist in Andean drug policy at the Washington Office on Latin America, a liberal think tank.

''It suits interests on both sides, so I wouldn't be surprised if there is decertification,'' he added. ……………..***