Venezuelanalysis.com is reporting that a delegation of Afro-American activists visiting Venezuela have sharply criticized the country's commercial print & broadcast media for what they describe as a "disinformation campaign against the peaceful and democratic process of changes underway in Venezuela, and against President Hugo Chavez Frias."

The US delegation had begun an 8-day visit to get a first hand assessment of the political and economical situation and to explore race relations in the racially-mixed Venezuelan environment.  Speaking to a press conference in Caracas, Thursday,  Bill Fletcher (president of the TransAfrica Forum) complained that the American people are being bombarded with "innuendo, lies and half-truths" about Venezuela.

Fletcher criticized both the US media and the US government for their continued attacks against the Venezuelan government ... he citied the case of false accusations claiming that President Chavez Frias supports left-wing Colombian guerrillas ... "they don't offer any proof, and then they don't apologize, but go on and prepare the next attack!"

Criticizing the hostility of the US government towards Venezuela, Fletcher recalled reports of US involvement in the short lived April 2002 coup d'etat against President Chavez Frias and accused President George W. Bush of giving "continuing support for activities aimed at toppling a legitimate and elected government such as Venezuela."

Actor Danny Glover agrees with Fletcher and adds that the majority of the information that US readers and viewers currently receive about Venezuela "has nothing to do with reality ... the only accurate information they can get comes from people they know, who have traveled to Venezuela and seen with their own eyes what is really happening ... it is very important for us, because we live in the most powerful country in the world, and with one of the most powerful information systems ... we really what to analyze what’s happening in Venezuela."

Glover says that his presence in Venezuela is "to listen and learn ... not only from government and opposition politicians, but to share with the people, those who are promoting the changes in this country ... and we want to be in contact with those who benefit from those changes."

"This isn't Danny Glover the artist ... I'm here as a citizen, not only of the US, but a citizen of the world. We fully understand the importance of this historical moment ... the importance of being part of a multiple vision of the world, which includes Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's vision, Simon Bolivar's vision and the sacrifice of all those who have participated for many years in the building of a more just society.”

After meeting the Afro-American delegation, Vice President Jose Vicente Rangel says that the visitors form "a very representative group of diverse tendencies of progressive and social causes of profound political, social, ethical and moral content."

James Early, Director of Cultural Studies & Communication at the Center for Folklife Programs & Cultural Studies at the Smithsonian Institution, confessed to surprise following the press conference that none of the Venezuelan journalists' questions were about subjects of cultural or racial diversity ... "What are you journalists doing to educate the Venezuelan people about racial and cultural diversity?  Democracy in the hemisphere relies heavily on the social responsibility of journalists and asking questions only about the government or the opposition isn’t going to help reach that goal ... Democracy is not the government or the opposition, it is the people ... being the people of Venezuela or the people of the United States."

Black Afro-Venezuelan Education, Culture & Sports (MECD) Minister Aristobulo Isturiz will join the delegates at the inauguration of the Bolivarian Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s  School in the predominantly black town of Naiguata (Vargas) ... reportedly he could not hide his satisfaction at the way the American delegation handled tricky questions from anti-Chavez journalists who have in the past described him depreciatingly as a "monkey" or "chimpanzee."

• Some local news media have only briefly mentioned the presence of the Americans in newscasts while other are ignoring it completely.

Meanwhile in an altogether startling Op-Ed piece in opposition-loaded PetroleumWorld.com,  28-years oil industry veteran and member of the first board of directors (1975-1979) of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), author of several books, Gustavo Coronel has gone into "scorched earth territory" mode deriding the US delegation's visit.  Baring surprisingly Doberman teeth for his septuagenarian senility, Coronel sinks his dentures into Venezuelan Washington D.C. Embassy press attache Andres Izarra, basically writing him off as the progeny of a Chavez Frias friendship, before saying "Welcome to Venezuela, Danny!"

Coronel writes: "I hope they show you how the Venezuelan poor really live and that you tell the US people about it when you return home ... I hope you are honest about it."

Coronel: However, on the basis of your public record, I doubt that you will make an honest report of the Venezuelan situation to your people. You are an admirer of Fidel Castro and signed a letter in his support in May 2003. Although Cuban black political dissidents like Angel Moya, Oscar Biscet, Ivan Hernandez and Jorge Olivera are in a Cuban prison for 18-25 years only because they do not agree with the dictator, you have never said a word about this. Another Cuban black, Eusebio Penalver, spent 28 years in a Castro prison and you never said a word. In a seminar held in Stanford University on September 15th, 2003, you actually asked for the life of Osama Bin Laden to be spared! Since you said that you opposed the death penalty, you added that even Bin Laden should be protected, since everybody has human rights. This is an extreme position that would deserve respect if you were ethically coherent, but you are not.

Lashing onward, the verbally agile 70-year-old concludes: You (Glover) are not ethically coherent because, in your movies, you play a cop who kills everybody who moves, before giving them their day in court. In the several movies called "Lethal Weapon", mentioned by Izarra with pride, you and your clearly psychopathic partner (Mel Gibson) really have a field day shooting and destroying the bad guys but do not think of reading them their rights. And yet, you claim that the life of Osama Bin Laden should be spared. Go and tell this to the relatives of the thousands of victims of September 11!

As if that little tirade were not enough in itself: You have also expressed your support of Bertrand Aristide in Haiti, although he also leaves a lot to be desired in the realm of human rights. Predictably you are a rabid anti-Bush activist and call him 'racist' ... of course you are entitled to your political views (?) but you have to pay the price for your unwise preferences. You cannot claim to be a human rights activist and defend Castro, Bin Laden, Aristide and, now, Chavez.

Scarcely pausing for breath (or writer's cramp), Coronel continues: This is why I have little hopes that you will return to your country really enlightened about the sad situation of the Venezuelan people under the government of Chavez. Although you have more than the money required to pay for your own fact finding trip to Venezuela, the briefing from the Venezuelan Embassy, at the service of Chavez, suggests that you are a guest of the government, not a guest of the Venezuelan people.

With unabashed conviction as a presumed 'insider' to arrangements for the Afro-American trip, Coronel declares that the pretended purpose of the trip is, in itself, an indication of the distorted nature of your (Glover's) visit. "You are coming to Venezuela to 'study' the situation of the Venezuelan blacks. Sir, you are being a racist. You would be hard put to find "blacks" in Venezuela ... except in villages such as Curiepe ... in Venezuela almost everybody is dark. We are a mestizo country, Sir."

Ignoring (or perhaps forgetting) the fact that President Chavez Frias has been attempting to undo the corruption and malfeasance of more than forty years of (currently opposition) misrule, Coronel continues with his anti-Afro-American delegation blitz: "We have no black oppressed minority in Venezuela, but a great mass of mestizos and mulattos lacking running water, decent schools and hospitals, running like rabbits to get home before sunset arrives, together with murderers and robbers; lacking decent employment and the required amount of daily calories. Are you telling me that, in the middle of this social chaos produced by the most inefficient and corrupt government we have had in modern Venezuelan history, you are coming to "study" the situation of blacks in the country? As they say in your native San Francisco: Give me a break!"

Flipping out in truly McCarthyist red-neck verbal effusion, Gustavo Coronel gives a final salvo from his reserve batteries of indignant tirades saying: "On the strength of your frequent visits to Cuba and of your friendship with Aristide, it would seem that your visit to Venezuela is just one more propaganda trip, paid by Venezuelans, black and white alike. The government spends a lot of money inviting fellow travelers to Venezuela: Ignacio Ramonet, Greg Palast, Michael Lebowitz, an Argentinean lady who wears a handkerchief over her head and rejoices in the destruction of the twin towers and other assorted members of the intellectual lower Pliocene. Now, they have recruited you."