Round Up: Chavez Plans Al Jazeera Type Network for Latin America

From NewsMax.com:

Telesur, short for "Television of the South," is billed as a commercial-free counterbalance to North American media and is set to begin broadcasting in several weeks, according to The Washington Times.

"Soon we will have Telesur, a channel with information for South American countries, because it is not possible that Venezuela and other southern countries depend only on information from CNN," Chavez said during a March press conference.

Chavez has enlisted support from left-leaning governments in Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil.

Chavez has already developed a new anti-American axis with Fidel Castro's Cuba. Tens of thousands of Castro's agent are believed to be in Venezuela helping Chavez maintain dictatorial control over his oil-rich nation.

This from Phil Gunson of Newsweek International on the MSNBC web site:

July 4 issue - On paper, at least, Telesur sounds like an idea whose time has come. Until now, Spanish-speaking Latin Americans who wanted to watch an international all-news network broadcasting in their language have had a limited menu to choose from: CNN en Espanol or Spain's government-run Television Espanola. But that will soon change when Telesur, a new venture backed by four left-of-center Latin American governments, begins airing in September from a studio in the Venezuelan capital, Caracas. "We have to tune in to CNN, the BBC or Television Espanola to find out what's happening in neighboring countries," notes Telesur's director, Aram Aharonian. "[But] today we are beginning to see ourselves with our own eyes."

From Venezuelananalysis.com, TeleSur is being toughted as being a counter-hegemonic project to compete with CNN and Univisión. This from station’s general director Aram Aharonian:

“The seed money is from the state. It is the first time in Latin America, after many years of neoliberalism, that the State has returned to fomenting projects that serve the citizenry.

Telesur will follow the same premises that for decades took refuge in small alternative and community media.

But now we have left our marginal niche and are heading toward mass communications.

We will focus on doing the opposite of commercial television. We will search out the protagonist role of social movements, people, communities, and towns."

Smells to me to serious conflict of interest, and just a big socialist propaganda tool paid for on the backs of the Venezuelan people. Chavez will starve Venezuela for the sake of his crusade to spread communism and socialism in South America.