For one, Telesur's director, Uruguayan journalist Aram Aharonian, seems more interested in thwarting the United States than in conveying the truth. He calls the United States "the enemy" and the Iraq War "genocidal." In a March interview with La Jornada, after giving nods to Messrs. Castro and Chavez, he promised a free editorial line -- with the exception that he'll broadcast "nothing against regional integration or the struggle against neoliberal globalization." That's Marxist for nothing favoring the United States. He praises Al Jazeera and welcomes the comparison. "Al Jazeera wants to show the Arabian point of view and Telesur wants to show the Latin American point of view," he told the New York Sun in March.
... the president of Telesur's board, Andres Izarra, is also Mr. Chavez's information minister. Incredibly, Mr. Aharonian says that won't affect Telesur's coverage. No wonder the critics are already calling it "Telechavez."
....So far no private investors have emerged. Only governments,... Mr. Castro's 19 percent stake says something, ...Mr. Chavez is using his country's oil money. Next week, Qatari Emir Hamad Bin-Khalifah Al Thani reportedly will meet with Venezuelan officials to talk shop and deepen ties with Al Jazeera…..***
Chavez, a fierce critic of the United States and a leftist ally of Communist Cuba, said Venezuela and other Latin American countries could develop nuclear energy as an alternative power source for civilian purposes.
"We are interested too, we must start working on that area... the nuclear area. We could, along with Brazil, with Argentina and others, start investigations into the nuclear sector and ask for help from countries like Iran," Chavez said on his regular Sunday TV program.
"It is for development, for life, for peace and energy," the president said during the program broadcast at an event in Caracas for Iranian companies.
Venezuela, the world's No. 5 oil exporter, is a key energy supplier to the United States, but its relations with Washington have soured since Chavez came to office six years ago promising to fight poverty with a raft of social reforms.
Chavez has backed Iran, branded by Washington part of an "axis of evil," in Tehran's dispute with the United States and Europe over its nuclear program. U.S. officials accuse Iran of secretly working to produce nuclear arms, but Tehran says its atomic program is only for civilian energy uses.
"I am sure the Iranian government is not making any atomic bomb," Chavez said, repeating support he gave during a visit by Iranian President Mohammad Khatami to Venezuela in March.
Venezuela is rich in heavy crude oil and natural gas. About 75 percent of its electric power is generated by state-run hydroelectric plants.
A self-proclaimed socialist revolutionary, Chavez says he is offering an alternative to U.S. "imperialism" and accuses Washington of trying to oust or kill him. Supporters applaud his education and health programs to help the poor.
He has strengthened political, energy and economic ties with China, India and Russia as an alternative to Venezuela's traditional alliance with the United States. [End]