Telesur Cranks Up the Coverage

As Venezuelans get ready to vote on Sunday for the second time in less than 2 years on a constitutional amendment that would allow Chavez to run for office indefinitely, Telesur has been cranking up the coverage. Today’s coverage of a rally with Chavez traveling through a sea of red as supporters talk about why they plan to vote yes for the amendment, has been repeated several times in the last few weeks. The Chavez government has organized these color-coordinated rallies all over the country to try to build support for the amendment.

Meanwhile Telesur has mostly avoided coverage of opposition rallies, student protests, and alleged suppression by the government of opposition groups, which has been on the front pages of the main Venezuelan newspapers (El Universal and El Nacional). Telesur did air an interview with Chavez this week in which he said the government would oppose dissident groups which had “international funding” and had “violent plans” to disrupt the referendum.

Telesur has also been running a half hour special on the amendment with experts from Bolivia, Spain, and Venezuela describing how the amendment would actually be advancing Venezuelan democracy. The special describes North American democracy as being corrupted by the excesses of capitalism, and says the purest forms of democracy are being practiced in Europe. It also claims that there are EU member states which allow for indefinite election of their presidents. I haven’t figured out which ones those are yet, but this is part of the way Telesur is framing the amendment as evidence of a true democracy where the constitution can be changed according to the people’s will, rather than as an attempt to consolidate power as many of Chavez’s opponents suspect.