Venezuelanalysis.com is reporting that TransAfrica Forum president Bill Fletcher, actor Danny Glover, and US Service Employees International Union (SEIU) vice president Patricia Ford have started a week-long visit to Venezuela to see the results of the 'peaceful revolutionary process' led by President Hugo Chavez Frias.

At a meeting today, Thursday, with Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel, award-winning actor Danny Glover (Lethal Weapon, The Color Purple) confirmed that the portrayal of Venezuela in the US media is "inaccurate and amounts to disinformation." Glover said he was excited to be invited to be a part of the visiting delegation and that he would not miss "such an opportunity to witness historical changes in Venezuela through the creation of a nation that seeks inclusion of all of its citizens."

The TransAfrica Forum is a major research, educational and organizing institution for the African-American community offering constructive analyses of issues concerning US policy as it affects Africa and the Diaspora in the Caribbean and Latin America. The Forum’s seminars, conferences, community awareness projects and training programs allow them to play a significant role in presenting to the general public alternative perspectives on the economic, political, and moral ramifications of US foreign policy.

African-American activist, TransAfrica Forum president Bill Fletcher also said he believed obviously that the US government had supported the coup d'etat in April 2002 and that it has been consistently hostile towards President Chavez Frias ... "who was elected with possibly a higher level of democracy than in any other part of the hemisphere."

Fletcher expressed his great interest during the past few years in the political developments in Venezuela and has defended the Bolivarian Revolution in several articles published in newspapers in the US, including the Washington Post.

The delegation was accompanied today by Venezuelan Ambassador to Washington, D.C., Bernardo Alvarez Herrera, and included actor Danny Glover, Bill Fletcher, the international vice president of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Patricia Ford, professor of criminology and director of the Department of Urban Studies (Washington, D.C.) Sylvia Hill, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) economist Julianne Malyeaux and the vice president of the TransAfrica Forum, Selena Mendy Singleton et.al.

Tomorrow, Friday, the group will attend the inauguration of the Bolivarian “Martin Luther King, Jr.” School in the Caribbean coastal town of Naiguata, where large numbers of Afro-Venezuelans live ... it will be the first official recognition in Venezuela of the leadership of one of the most important civil rights leaders from the United States in an event hosted by Minister of Education, Culture & Sports, Aristobulo Isturiz and Ambassador Alvarez Herrera.

The delegation’s presence in Venezuela will also launch the official recognition of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday as a day of national celebration in Venezuela where a high percentage of the population traces its roots back to Africa ... the holiday has been celebrated in the United States since January 20 (1986) despite significant controversy, and is the only federal holiday commemorating an Afro-American.  They have also been invited to meet local community groups, members of the women’s rights movement, government officials, educators and opposition leaders and will take part in President Chavez Frias’ weekly radio and television program 'Alo Presidente' on Sunday.  Continuing to next Monday, the group will visit several working class neighborhoods in Caracas and meet with community activists.