Charles Hardy

PUTIN AND HU VISIT HUGO CH�VEZ; BARACK OBAMA TO VISIT GLORIA ESTEFAN

When President Obama met with the other American presidents in Trinidad last year, I was filled with hope for a new relation between the United States and Latin America. But as President Ch�vez of Venezuela has pointed out, the Barack Obama of Trinidad is not the Barack Obama of today.

The position of the United States in the Honduran conflict was abominable. The opening of new U.S. military bases in Colombia has been simply provocative. The threat of opening more such bases brings to mind the Monroe doctrine of the nineteenth century. In terms of this new century, the presidency of Barack Obama in relation to Latin America has been worse than that of President George W. Bush.

As I write this, the Prime Minister of Russia, Vladimir Putin just completed a visit to Venezuela. Russia and Venezuela entered into new agreements on multiple levels. Although the international press will focus on military equipment that Venezuela has purchased and will purchase from Russia, 31 agreements were signed in a variety of areas. These include automobiles, an airplane that carries water to fight forest fires, and new ships that will carry petroleum from Venezuela to other parts of the world.

It would be nice if the United States would be involved in such negotiations. It could help its economy. Why isn�t it? One reason is because Venezuela bought F-16 fighter jets from the U.S. many years ago. Now, however, the U.S. won�t sell replacement parts for them. Who would want to stay involved in negotiations with that kind of partner relationship!

In their longstanding allegiance and love for the United States, the Venezuelan opposition likes to talk about how Venezuela is isolating itself from the international community. What is really happening is that the United States is trying to isolate it. Its media success in the U.S., Western Europe, Colombia, and a few other countries has to be recognized. But the reality is that the United States is gradually isolating itself from most of the rest of the world.

In the next few weeks, the president of the immense country of China, Hu Jintao, will be coming to Venezuela to meet with President Ch�vez. Before that, the president of the small country of Uruguay, Jose Mujica, will be coming here.

But in the United States, on April 15, President Barack Obama will be going to what appears to be the new sovereign country of Florida to have cocktails with Gloria Estefan in her Miami Beach home. Gloria was born in Cuba and has an insatiable hatred for the government of that tiny Caribbean island. As reported by the Miami Herald, she and her husband are going to host a cocktail reception for President Obama. The cost? Only $30,400 per couple.

While many see the U.S. Empire starting to crumble, President Obama is going to meet with Gloria. What�s behind this friendship with Gloria and her husband? Apparently, it seems that Obama likes her singing as well as the Estefan�s song about Cuba. She has already performed at the White House and he had no problem meeting with her husband there. He even granted Gloria the right to an interview on a Hispanic television station in the United States, Univision.

Thus, while 187 nations voted in the United Nations in October against the U.S. blockade of Cuba (only the U.S., Israel, and Palau voted for continuing it), President Obama courts the friendship of the ex-Cuban wealthy in Miami. Meanwhile world leaders such as Putin, Chu, Mujica, and others visit Hugo Ch�vez, who speaks for the non-wealthy in Latin America.

I don�t know if Ms. Estefan and President Obama refer to each other as �Gloria� and �Barack,� but I did hear Prime Minister Putin and President Ch�vez refer to each other as �Vladimir� and �Hugo.� It would be nice to hear someday on Venezuelan television, �Barack� and �Hugo.� But I am losing hope. The President Obama of Trinidad just doesn�t seem to be the President Obama of today.

In February, presidents of Latin American countries met in Cancun, Mexico, and decided to form a new Latin American and Caribbean organization without the United States and Canada as members. I wonder if Gloria Estefan and President Obama will decide to form a new North American organization without the Latin American and Caribbean countries. It could be composed of only three nations: the United States, Canada, and Florida.

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THE VENEZUELA THAT DOESN'T EXIST

Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research, in Washington, D.C. and president of Just Foreign Policy , has published an excellent analysis of what is happening in regard to Venezuela�outside of Venezuela.

I would highly recommend the article that appeared in The Guardian on March 18. The article is entitled, �The anti-Venezuela election campaign,� and presents a good picture of what the country is going to be up against during the next seven months.

As a U.S. citizen, I wish the picture were only an imaginary scenario, the work of an artist. I�m afraid, rather, that it is a photograph from one of the old-fashioned cameras�a photograph that hasn�t been digitally manipulated.

Please do check out the article. Here is the response that I sent to the Guardian:

After reading all the negative comments about Mr. Weisbrot�s article I feel obliged to throw in my own. I am a U.S. citizen who has lived in Venezuela for most of the past 25 years. I have experienced Venezuela B.C. (before Ch�vez) and after. As a Roman Catholic priest, I lived for eight years in a pressed-cardboard and tin shack�part of a B.C. government housing project built when oil money was pouring into the country.

Anyone who wants to come here with eyes wide open should be able to see the light-years� difference in what has happened here. We have never had more freedom of expression. A stroll past the newsstands in Caracas, a scan of the radio stations, or a look at the television being broadcast would quickly reveal to any unbiased observer that the owners of the mass media here say whatever they want to say about the current government.

Government housing, health and education programs are far better than they have ever been in my 25 years here. Is everything perfect? No. Is there still corruption? Yes, and maybe more than ever because there is more money here than ever. But the situation of the ordinary person in the street cannot in any way be compared with what existed in Venezuela�s B.C.

It would take pages to refute all the untruths that keep running through media, but just to mention one that appears in Batleymuslim�s e-mail: �what would happen if Obama dictated to all the TV and radio stations in the US they had to carry his weekly broadcast, and those that didn't well they get closed down.� No station here has to carry his weekly broadcast. I only know of one that does�the government�s principal station. (Maybe there are a couple more government associated channels that carry it. I�ll check on that this Sunday. But there are about a hundred on regular cable that don�t. Besides that, the government channels are not strong enough to cover all areas of the country.) I don�t wish to belittle Batleymuslim in any way as a person entitled to express an opinion. However, I think it is a good example of the junk that the media serves every day and influences the attitude of people like Batleymuslim.

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THE U.S. SPEAKING TOUR

I will be in the United States for the next two weeks speaking in Illinois, Wisconsin, Missouri, Kansas, and Minnesota, about Venezuela and Latin America. It would be great to meet you if you are in any of these areas. Following are some of the public presentations:

Chicago area and Milwaukee

Tuesday, February 16, River Forest, Illinois, Dominican University, 2:20-3:30 p.m., 7900 West Division, Parmer 108

Wednesday, February 17, Palatine, Illinois, Harper College, 2:30-4:30 p.m., 1200 West Algonquin Road

Thursday, February 18, Chicago, Illinois, 8th Day Center for Justice, 12:00 noon, 205 West Monroe, #500

Thursday, February 18, Chicago, Illinois, Access Living, Second Floor Conference Room, 7:00 p.m., 115 West Chicago Avenue

Friday, February 19, Chicago, Illinois, Venezuelan Consulate, 4:00 p.m., Lyric Opera Building, 25 North Wacker, Suite 1925

Sunday, February 21, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Milwaukee Latin America Solidarity Committee, 5:00 p.m., Brewing Grounds for Change Coffeeshop, 2008 North Farwell Avenue

Monday, February 22, Chicago, Illinois, Northeastern Illinois University, 5:40-6:55 p.m., 5500 N. St. Louis

Tuesday, February 23, Chicago, Illinois, Backstory Caf�, 5:00 p.m., 6100 South Blackstone Avenue

Kansas City Area

Thursday, February 25, Kansas City, Missouri, Plaza Library Auditorium, 6:00 p.m., 4801 Main. For more information, contact: Judy Ancel, Cross Border Network, 816-835-4745 or Joel Jones, Plaza Library, 816-701-3581.

Friday, February 26, Manhattan, Kansas, Manhattan Public Library, 2:00 � 4:00 p.m.

Minneapolis-St.Paul

Saturday, February 27, Resource Center for the Americas Coffeehouse, 10:00 a.m., 3019 Minnehaha Avenue, Suite 20. Tel. 612-276-0788, www.americas.org

Sunday, February 28, Spirit of Saint Stephen�s Community, following the 9 a.m. liturgy. Contact Cheryl Meyers at cameyers@q.com for further information.

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U.S. TO HAITI: "STAND IN LINE, CHILDREN, OR..."

Thanks to television, on Tuesday, January 19, I heard a member of the U.S. military say to a group of Haitians, �If you don�t stand in line, we�re not going to help you.� I hope the Haitians didn�t understand him.

A week had passed since the tragic earthquake struck Haiti. These Haitians had been waiting seven days, �standing in line,� shall we say? And this well-fed U.S. soldier had the gall to say to them that if they didn�t stand in line the way he wanted them to do so, �we�re not going to help you.�

It is fortunate that he probably couldn�t speak the Haitian Creole, or even the French that some people there speak. But wouldn�t it have been nice if he would have said to a translator, �Please ask the people to stand in line, so we can distribute (whatever he was going to distribute) as fast as possible. Tell them we want to be of help, but we need their help and cooperation.�

And he should have also added, �Please tell them we are sorry that it has taken us so long to get here. Please forgive us.�

The Haitian tragedy happened Tuesday afternoon, January 12. By Wednesday morning Venezuela had the first plane land with supplies and rescue personnel. By Thursday morning, China had a similar plane there�before one arrived from the U.S. And then, seven days later, U.S. planes were dropping supplies in front of the onlooking Haitians, together with soldiers carrying weapons in their arms. There were complaints of looting. There wouldn�t have been as many if food and other necessary supplies had arrived sooner. Yes, in behalf of the citizens of the United States, he should have asked for forgiveness.

A kind elderly Catholic bishop once told me that Saint Vincent DePaul said we should ask forgiveness from the needy when we give them bread. The same should be in order for us U.S. citizens.

Even Anderson Cooper and two other CNN reporters said that excessive security measures were keeping the Haitian people from receiving help they needed. They mentioned they had no problem going wherever they wanted to go without security. The Haitians were treating them with respect.

During those first days of the tragedy, I also heard that the Haitian ambassador to the U.S. advised his countrymen and women that they should not try to enter the U.S. They would be turned back. Then I heard that the Venezuelan government formed a Haitian-Venezuelan brigade to go to Haiti. And, also, that the government planned to speed up documents for any illegal Haitian immigrant in the country that wanted to join the brigade so that they would have no problem returning to Venezuela when they wanted to do so.

Writing what I just have written makes me sad. I love my native country. I don�t want the U.S. to be the best country in the world. I just want it to be as great as every other; but I also have to recognize that we do have great power. I grew up with the impression that we also had high ideals in everything we did as a nation. It hurts to learn that we have fallen far short in the past. It hurts even more to see that we are still fumbling our responsibility, because as Uncle Ben told Peter Parker in Spiderman, �with great power comes great responsibility.� It also calls for gentleness.

I have read that there is a custom in Haiti that when one knocks at a door, one should also say, �Honor.� The person inside replies, �Respect.� After having troops in Haiti for so many years, we could have learned that custom. We should have.

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This reflection was prepared originally for 21st Century Socialism ...

GETTING HELP TO HAITI

I can�t watch more TV reports from Haiti. I simply want to do something to help. I think I have found the best way for me to do that.

In 1993, I met Reed Lindsay in Mexico at the Narco News School of Authentic Journalism. At the time, he was a free-lance journalist working in Argentina, a student at the journalism school. I was a professor�but I felt Reed knew a lot more than I did about journalism.

From that moment on, I watched from a distance as Reed moved throughout the world. I watched him watching, listening, and writing. But most of all I observed his desire to be with the people whose stories he was capable of telling to English readers.

Reed was thinking about moving to Venezuela and told me that if he did he wanted to live in a barrio and not in an apartment as most foreign journalists do, separated from the reality of the ordinary people. He asked me for advice.

I told Reed he should think about moving to Brazil. He spoke Spanish; learning Portuguese would open the whole continent to him for future reporting. He thought about it during a trip to the United States.

When Reed returned to Venezuela, he shared his decision with me: he was going to Haiti. That was 2004. He had been there shortly before the president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was forced out of the country by the United States. Haiti was in turmoil. He said he felt the truth wasn�t getting out of Haiti. The next day he went to a local travel agency and bought a plane ticket.

Reed had brought me a book as a gift. I asked him to sign it, and while I didn�t say anything to him, I wondered if I would ever see him again alive.

But Reed did survive and the next time I saw him in Venezuela I asked him if he had learned French. He told me that people spoke Creole in Haiti. That is what he was learning. Creole! There are over 178,000,000 people in the world that speak Portuguese. Reed was learning the Haitian Creole�maybe eight million people speak it�a dot in the world population.

But that dot seemed to fill Reed�s heart. Soon he was not only reporting news from Haiti but he and Haitian friends had started a school for kids who couldn�t get into the regular schools. Then he got family members and friends to start collecting money so he could buy food to provide a meal for the children. Their mothers became the school cooks.

With the help of friends in the U.S., he started a non-profit organization known as the Honor and Respect Foundation. (The name was inspired by a Haitian tradition in which a visitor to somebody�s house calls out "Honor" and receives the answer "Respect.")

Reed is now working in Washington, D.C., as the bureau chief for Telesur, a Latin American television network. But he returned to Haiti this week and to his old neighborhood, not only to report on what he was seeing, but to work with the people in their survival efforts.

I got an e-mail from the Honor and Respect Foundation yesterday and I immediately sent a donation. They have no overhead; I know the money will go directly to help the people in Haiti. I feel a bit less frustrated today. I feel I am doing something to help. The people in Haiti are my brothers and sisters. No, better, they are I. As Carl Sandburg wrote in the prologue to The Family of Man:

�There is only one man in the world and his name is All Men. There is only one woman in the world and her name is All Women. There is only one child in the world and the child�s name is All Children.�

If you feel something of what I feel today, please go directly to the Honor and Respect Foundation website for more information.

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THE U.S. RESPONSE TO HAITI (TO AMERICA?)

Since Wednesday President Obama has told the people of Haiti and of the world that help is on its way. From the very beginning he said to the people of Haiti, �You will not be forsaken.� But there are some questions that the United States should consider.

Why was China able to get a rescue crew into Haiti faster than the U.S.? (Is my mental map of the world screwed up? I thought Beijing was about as far away from Haiti as you could get.)

And why was Venezuela able to get aid and rescue workers there the morning after the tragedy�even a day earlier than China? (Not much news coverage about that).

And isn�t it interesting that Cuba had three hundred Cuban medical personnel already there to serve the Haitians, was thus able to respond immediately, and was sending more medical assistance?

In Cheyenne, Wyoming, I was once told that at least two police cars could be at the site of any emergency within one minute. Why has it taken a couple of days to send rescue people a short distance from U.S. shores? Is that the best the U.S. can do? And, is that the same amount of time it would take the federal government to respond to an emergency within the U.S.? Maybe so.

In light of this reality, it seems amazing that an Associate Press story could say, �The U.S. dispatched troops and ships along with aid to Haiti, and other nations were joining the effort to help�.� It should have said that the U.S. was joining other nations who were already responding to the need.

According to the Associated Press, the U.S. announced on Thursday that C-130s �airlifted 42 American officials and their families and another 72 private citizens to safety.� Iceland Air took out another 50 private citizens. (Iceland also got rescue workers in faster than the U.S. government).

Of course it seems logical that concern for American citizens should be on the mind of the U.S. government. President Obama went so far as to say, �We will not rest until we account for our fellow Americans in harm�s way.� I wonder if he realizes that all Haitians are Americans�in fact some of the earliest to be called such. Christopher Columbus arrived there in 1492 on his first trip to the new world��discovering� America. I wonder how many Haitians (=Americans) will be airlifted out?

There is another question that is going to have to be raised in the weeks and months ahead, as had to be confronted after Katrina�s destruction in New Orleans: could much of this tragedy have been avoided? An article by Peter Hallward in the Guardian could be a starting point for the discussion.

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THE DARK AGES: AWAITING ENLIGHTENMENT IN THE U.S.A.

I spent the Christmas holidays in my hometown of Cheyenne, Wyoming. It is always interesting to return to the U.S. and to get back in touch with a bit of the reality there.

One evening I was attending an open house party when I saw a former public high-school principal that I have known for a long time. I don�t remember if he greeted me, or simply began to speak about Venezuela�s president, Hugo Ch�vez. The remark was something like this: �That crazy Ch�vez thinks the U.S. is sending spy planes over Venezuelan territory. What do we need spy planes for when we have satellites providing all the information we need?�

I told him that I thought Ch�vez might not be insane and that I had personally seen such airplanes in the Curacao airport, just a few miles off the Venezuelan coast. Whatever else I might have said didn�t seem to make much of an impact on him as he gazed into the distance and changed the topic.

His son had given him an article to read about Argentina. He found it very interesting and said he didn�t realize that there were so many European-born people living in Sao Paulo. I wanted to tell him that Sao Paulo was in Brazil and not in Argentina. I didn�t. It wasn�t that I didn�t want to embarrass him in front of the person he was sitting next to; I just didn�t think it would add anything to the quality of the conversation.

A few days later, as I passed through the living room of our family home, I noticed a question on Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? It asked in which country was there a coup in 2009 to overthrow President Zelaya. The possible answers were Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, and Honduras. The woman contestant would gain a few thousand dollars more if she answered correctly.

Since she didn�t know the answer she decided to call a very smart friend. His suggestion? El Salvador. Was he sure? 50-50. Next choice? Guatemala.

Fortunately the woman decided to walk away with the money she already had instead of risking it by following his suggestions or simply trying to guess the answer. In spite of being a contestant on one of the most important game shows in the U.S., she and her very smart friend simply had no idea about an important event in Honduras that has occupied the television screens in Latin America for months.

I got thinking afterwards, what if she had called Secretary of State Hilary Clinton for help. I wonder if she would have been able to give the correct answer.

Then a friend sent me an editorial from the Wall Street Journal, entitled, �The Tehran-Caracas Nuclear Axis.� It was written by Bret Stephens. In it he said that an �Iranian dairy products plant�also set up shop hard on the Colombian border, in territory controlled by Colombia�s terrorist FARC.� I was surprised to learn that the FARC controlled a part of Venezuela. I am sure that the FARC would also be surprised to learn of that.

Nevertheless this now Wall Street Journal editor in New York, for some reason, has the right to tell millions of Americas something that simply is not true.

On the return flight to Caracas, it seemed that I had just been back in the dark ages: a lot of ignorance, wars going on in all parts of the world, apathy, lies. But then I thought back to Cheyenne: the beautiful Christmas lights that I have loved since my childhood; the bright, white snow that I had seen falling gently to the ground.

I popped the iPod earpods into the sides of my iHead ears and fell asleep listening to Perry Como sing, �Oh! There�s no place like home for the holidays.� With joy and sadness I thought to myself, he was right.

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These comments were originally prepared for Narco News ...

A BELATED: HAPPY HOLIDAYS

Thanksgiving was November 26; the Feast of St. Nicholas, December 6. They were followed by Hanukkah, Christmas, and even New Years�and not a word here from Charlie Hardy since September. Forgive me.

When this blog started several years ago, my desire was to post some new thoughts each Wednesday. Sadly, I�ve not kept up with that desire. In front of my desk is something I wrote long ago: a writer is a writer only when the writer is writing. I do want to be a writer and feel an obligation to be such.

Today is another Wednesday: January 6. A part of the Christian world is celebrating the birth of Jesus. In other parts of the Christian community today marks the twelfth day of Christmas. In Venezuela, it means that vacation time is over and classes should start tomorrow.

For me, it also means a good day to get back to writing and start trying to post something each Wednesday. I thought about just wishing all those who look at this blog a Happy Valentine�s Day, Happy Easter, Happy Fourth of July, Happy Labor Day, etc., and then go back to not worrying about posting anything else for the next twelve months. That brought to mind something the E.B. White once wrote: �I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day.� It also makes it hard to plan a year.

Today I promise myself to fulfill a bit of both desires in the coming year. I�m worried about what is going to happen in Latin America in the months ahead, not to even think about the rest of the world. The happenings in Honduras this past year have painted a dark sky for what could be a coming storm. There is a need for strong voices communicating with the world about what is really happening here. My voice may be weak, but I know I have to do the best I can in getting the word out. And yet I know the danger of losing a sense of humor and of losing faith and hope in humanity. I don�t want that to happen to me and so I will also do my best to enjoy the world.

In 359 days, you and I will know how well I fared in my endeavors. But thank you for joining me in this journey. And, happy holidays�past, present, and future.

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IS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS IN VENEZUELA A RELIGION?

Recently Colombia accused Venezuela of providing three anti-tank rocket launchers to the FARC (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). President Ch�vez has repeatedly denied the charge.

On August 5, Ch�vez held a special news conference with the international press that lasted several hours. He presented evidence that the rockets were among five that were stolen from the Venezuelan armed forces on February 25, 1995, when a military base was attacked by Colombian guerillas. This was four years before he became president.

In an Associated Press article with the byline of Christopher Toothaker published on the Internet on August 9, mention is made of Colombia�s accusation and that Sweden confirmed the sale of the weapons to Venezuela. (That happened in the late 80s). It also said that, �Ch�vez denies aiding the FARC.� But the article did not say anything about the weapons being among those taken in 1995.

So I called Mr. Toothaker to ask why he omitted that. He replied that he didn�t �believe� that they were the weapons that were stolen. He added that Ch�vez said the weapons involved were taken by the ELN, (the National Liberation Army in Colombia). That was pretty much all of our conversation.

Afterwards I was thinking that maybe the weapons that the Colombia government retrieved were taken from the ELN and not the FARC. It is difficult for me to trust anything coming from the Colombian government. I thought about calling Mr. Toothaker again to ask about that possibility, but decided not to do so because I felt I would just receive another of his beliefs.

I, too, have beliefs and I often express them in my writing. But I write commentaries. The Associated Press is supposed to present facts in their news stories, not beliefs. Unless, that is, it is a religion and its readers are supposed to accept whatever it says as an act of faith. The fact that Ch�vez called a special press conference to explain the source of those rockets seems to me to be a rather important fact that should have had a place in Mr. Toothaker�s article.

It should be noted that the Associated Press in Venezuela has its offices in the building that is home to El Universal, one of the major opposition newspapers. Having offices there is like trying to grow beautiful smelling roses in a hotbed of onions. Not exactly the best place for a news service that is should be presenting balanced reporting.

In contrast to the AP story, it is interesting that Eleazar D�az Rangel, editor of the Venezuelan daily Ultimas Noticias, devoted almost a third of a page to the rocket matter. He said that President Uribe of Colombia had run throughout Latin America telling the world his own story about the rockets. And, �Naturally the international agencies spread this story, and in hundreds of media in Latin America that is what was published and, you can be sure, that version is what is believed to be true.�

Rangel ended his comments by saying that it was once again proof that �lies don�t have such short legs.�

On August 28, UNASUR met in Argentina for a special meeting about the installation of U.S. military bases in Colombia. It is interesting that Colombia requested that the meeting be televised in its totality. In Venezuela, it was broadcast completely and TELESUR did so also. President Uribe used the event to speak for about forty-five minutes. I am sure Colombia wanted to use the meeting as a media platform to defend itself and to again toss its accusations against other nations.

To the credit of the Associated Press, Michael Warren did a good job in reporting on the event. Unfortunately, it was hard to find his article on the Internet. I found Mr. Toothaker�s article on the opening page of Yahoo the day it appeared.

Mr. Warren was recently named to a new position with the Associated Press overseeing AP operations in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay. Judging from this article, that�s good news. I just hope he examines carefully the information that he receives from the AP office in Caracas. Its reputation for balanced reporting is not a good one.

Searching for truth is not easy in Latin America in the midst of a war of words. Or, better, a war of ideologies.

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(This commentary was originally published on Narco News ...

THANK GOD (AND CHAVEZ) FOR TELESUR

At 9:01 a.m. on Sunday, June 28, I received a text message from Javier Marquez. It was brief: �Coup d��tat in Honduras.�

I was surprised that morning when I saw that Javier had sent me a text message. I think it was the first I have ever received from him. Javier is a descendent of enslaved people from Africa. He lives here in Venezuela in the region of Barlovento. Its inhabitants are known for their dark skin and their ancestors have worked the land for centuries, producing some of the finest cacao in the world.

Freedom is important to Javier and his family and they won�t hesitate for a moment in telling you that the Ch�vez government has made a big difference in their lives. So it shouldn�t have surprised me that he would be the first to inform me about the coup d��tat in Honduras.

I was not surprised that a coup had taken place. I felt it coming the day before when I read in a Venezuelan newspaper that General Romeo Vasquez said a coup d��tat was �not certain.� As soon as I saw the words, �not certain,� I said to myself immediately that it was one of the options the general was considering.

I immediately turned on the television and for the next day-and-a-half I watched the broadcasting from a relatively new television network, TELESUR. I stopped watching it when its reporter was arrested the next afternoon. If TELESUR had not existed, I don�t think I would have found out even half of what was happening in Honduras.

TELESUR was an idea of Hugo Ch�vez. Early in his presidency, he began chastising his associates that they were not making use of the mass media. But gradually he became aware of the fact that even if they tried to use the commercial media, the media wasn�t open to giving them a fair hearing. The 2002 coup d��tat against him made clear the need for alternative media sources�not just within the country but throughout Latin America.

Thus TELESUR come into existence. Before its presence, international television news reporting on Latin America was pretty much limited to CNN. The idea of �balanced reporting� from the heart of one of the U.S.�s media centers��CNN in Spanish from Atlanta, Georgia��was simply an oxymoron.

Reporting on the recent events in Honduras, TELESUR had reporters and cameras where CNN did not. It must have been humbling, even humiliating, for CNN to have to re-broadcast video from TELESUR in order to try to give some balance to their reporting. This also highlighted a reality: if TELESUR had not been there the world would never have seen what was happening.

Maybe I should clarify the last sentence: the world outside of Honduras would never have seen what was happening. TELESUR�s signal in Honduras was cut off by the de facto government with its new style of �democracy� and �freedom of speech.�

In Venezuela, I wouldn�t have seen TELESUR either had it not been for another decision of Ch�vez. Where I live I can only receive three TV stations with an antenna. One of the three is channel 2. This air space was occupied by RCTV, the company whose license was not renewed in May, 2007. TVES, a public service station is now broadcast on that channel and TVES suspended all broadcasting the first two days of the coup to transmit TELESUR�s coverage. Had RCTV still had the channel, I am sure that I never would have seen what was happening. RCTV openly supported the coup against Ch�vez in 2002. There is no doubt where their sympathy lies today with the situation in Honduras.

To keep abreast of what was happening in Honduras, I had cable installed a few days after the coup. Thus I was able to see the peaceful march in Tegucigalpa the Sunday when Zelaya was planning to return to Honduras. TELESUR was there and had cameras that clearly showed the military opening fire against the unarmed people. I listened to the panting voices of their reporters as they ran to get out of the line of fire.

Now that I have cable, I am also able to see CNN in Spanish as well as TELESUR. This brings another interesting dimension to light. On TELESUR I see numerous ads from PDVSA, the Venezuelan national oil company. I have no doubt that this money has played a big part in keeping the network going.

On CNN, I have seen numerous ads for Colombia. The basic themes: Colombia is a wonderful place to visit; there is no risk when you go there, except that you might fall in love with the country; the word in Colombia for �foreigner� is �amigo.� But my questions have been: where was all this money coming from for these ads and why was all this money going to CNN? In light of Colombia�s decision to allow U.S. military bases on their somewhat-sovereign territory, the questions are probably answered.

A taxi driver asked me the other day: �Doesn�t it seem strange that the country which consumes the most drugs in the world (the U.S.), maintains its strongest relation in Latin America with the country which produces the most drugs (Colombia)?� He said that if the U.S. was serious about combating the drug problem, Colombia should be its enemy, not its friend. Not bad reasoning!

TELESUR had to reduce the coverage that they had for the first two weeks after the coup in Honduras. Their reporters were basically driven out of the country by the de facto government�s orders. Faced with masked military forces and threatened if they didn�t leave the country, they didn�t have much choice. But TELESUR is now back in Honduras with much of the reporting being done by other top-notch journalists, including one from the U.S. who has spent years covering the news in Latin America and who has most recently been in Haiti, Reed Lindsay.

Being a believer in some superior being (that most people refer to as �God�), I thank God for the atmosphere that surrounds us. But I also thank Hugo Ch�vez for filling a part of that air with the signals of TELESUR.

I doubt that the coup leaders in Honduras see the same relationship between God and Ch�vez that I do in the air that they have to breathe each day. Maybe I should pray for a conversion! �if only I could remember the name of the patron saint of impossible causes.

(This commentary was written for 21st Century Socialism ...