VHeadline commentarist Carlos Herrera writes: The Law of Social Responsibility in Radio & Television (Ley RESORTE, in Spanish) is on the statute books in Venezuela; Mexico is considering a new Federal Broadcast Law at the same time; Telesur (South American cable news channel) is about to be born with the objective of providing news and opinion by Latin Americans, for Latin Americans.

News and events broadcast on Telesur will not pass through CNN in Atlanta, or the BBC in London, to be sanitized and twisted to suit the values and interests of the developed world and its nascent imperial intentions, then to be rebroadcast to Latin America.

All these developments in mass communication will inevitably weaken the media domination of the United States empire and its opinion builders, so it will be up to the right-wing press in Venezuela to keep US values and opinions in the public eye, with the hope of continuing to influence public opinion against the Chavez government ... as has been the case since 1999.

The problem is that the circulation of the traditionally recognized opinion forming dailies in Venezuela has fallen from its high of around 230,000 copies a day for El Nacional in 2001, to around 70,000-80,000 copies a day (excluding Sunday, when the circulation is substantially higher).

All this points to the “media war” becoming more entrenched in the internet, due to its growing influence on public opinion and as an information source, as expertly described in the article “Mass Media: the great paradox” by Venezuelan Ambassador in London, Alfredo Toro Hardy, published in VHeadline on December 9.

• In the case of Venezuelan opposition web sites, there are a few to choose from and all are characterized by a “hate-Venezuela” syndrome, even though in the odd case, there is a positive mission statement posted.

The common factor is a completely irrational hatred for President Chavez ... as it was always the unifying factor of the Venezuelan opposition.

The problem with this attitude is that most of the Venezuelan public do not swallow this line any more, as the extreme twisted coverage had gotten so out of hand, that it has effectively become a media boomerang, defeating the stated aim of ousting Chavez.

You cannot expect to win enough votes without proposing something better in terms of a “national plan.”

Some factions of the splintered Venezuelan opposition has learned this lesson at great political cost ... but the opposition web sites cannot see the wood for the trees, and keep blundering along, lashing out in every direction with absolutely zero success or effect on public opinion, except amongst their own hard line supporters.

We, at VHeadline, receive substantially more than our fair share of hate mail and threats from the social misfits who run opposition web sites, especially when we hit a raw nerve and expose them for what they are worth!

• In most instances it's just prejudiced bile and half truths, missing out salient facts and stating their own opinions as if they were based on real events.

Always predicting cataclysmic consequences which so far have yet to occur.

At the same time, a closer look at these sites in some detail will demonstrate beyond any shadow of a doubt, that they are being financed by the same people who engineered the coup d’etat in April 2002, the oil industry sabotage in December 2002­February 2003 and the street blocking “guarimbas” in February 2004.

One lighter example is a hate website run by Alexandra Beech ... in the mission statement, she says: We are Venezuelans who believe that the only solution to the present crisis is constructive and innovative strategies.

This sounds positive enough to me, but then she shoots herself down in flames when in the same comment , she states: Rather than continuing to complain about the current situation, (as important as it is to continue denouncing human rights abuses on the global scale), I wanted to create a website that focused on Venezuela's future. Our goal, God willing, is that the current president's name be mentioned only when absolutely necessary. It is time that Venezuelans start focusing on The Sixth Republic!

• She proceeds to redefine “our goal” that the current President’s name be mentioned only when absolutely necessary!

In fact, if you read some of Ms. Beech’s penmanship, her standpoint is little different from the loonies at the more extreme edge of what might be called journalism or “comment” on Venezuela.

What a pity...

I thought that perhaps she had learned something from the opposition’s debacle, but the web site and her comments cloned in the network of opposition sites exclusively focus on “complaining about the current situation” ... which directly contradicts her own stated position.

• I suggest she take time-out to reconsider what she is really doing, as she must be very confused after the hammering at the polls of August 15 and October 31.

Recently the editor of VenezuelaToday.net has been having a pop at VHeadline editor & publisher Roy Carson, accusing him of being me, Carlos Herrera.

This individual always writes anonymously due to the deep conviction of what he is doing, so I decided to do some cyber-digging to find out more about his web site, as well as speaking to our confidential contacts.

The results were very enlightening about who the Venezuelan government is up against in the “internet information war.”

The president of VenezuelaToday is linked to an NGO called Democracia y Desarrollo, P.O. Box International 02-5225, Miami, FL 33102-522 and its president is Pedro Pablo Aguilar. This 'gentleman' is is a former president of the Venezuelan National Congress and the spin-offs are Venezuelatoday.net and Venenews.org

• The Venenews spin-off is registered in Caracas to one Gerard Jubert, Edificio Panorama, PHC1, Terrazas del Club Hípico, Calle Central, Caracas 1080, Venezuela.

Our confidential sources indicate to us that the man pulling the strings behind the scenes at VenezuelaToday.net is Alberto Quiroz Corradi and he is in cahoots with Gustavo Coronel, who writes regular columns in PetroleumWorld.com ... almost always against the Venezuelan government. (They are both ex-oil executives, so the link must still be strong and have been fortified by the hate for the Chavez regime).

• Quiroz Corradi has just been accused, and will go to trial, for his role in the coup d’etat of April 2002 ... and is facing treason charges. He has been forbidden to leave the country by judicial order and is facing up to 16 years in prison if found guilty.

I understand from our sources that Quiroz Corradi still has a close relationship with the former president of PDVSA, Luis Giusti, and is also linked to Elias Santana of Queremos Eligir (who attempted to get the legalization of cocaine in his PDVSA-sponsored radio program in Caracas in 1994/5).

Quiroz Corradi was an assessor to Giusti along with Humberto Calderon Berti during his disastrous presidency at PDVSA. Venezuela was pumping all the oil it could, breaching OPEC quotas and feeding the gas guzzling US economy with cheap crude and subsidizing CITGO’s purchases by up to US$4/barrel under a 30-year agreement, subject to US and not Venezuelan laws ... meaning that this indirect subsidy agreement for the US consumer is still in force and is compounded, for example, by the fact that CITGO’s gasoline at the pumps is cheaper than Exxon’s.

• The result was crude at US$7.30/barrel in 1998, and PDVSA being set up to be privatized at a knock-down price.

Giusti is now energy adviser to the Bush administration and is the person who said in November 2002, that Chavez would fall in four days if there was a strike at PDVSA -­ just how wrong can you be?

Our sources also indicated that it is Quiroz Corradi himself who obtains the funds to support the opposition web sites. These are used not only for VenezuelaToday and its spin offs, but funds are also channeled to internet terrorist, Aleksander Boyd in London, whose site is registered under his own name: Aleksander Boyd 9, Cleveland Court, Cleveland Street, London, W1T6NH, UK.

The next question is: Where does the money come from?

I am pretty sure that the money to keep the web sites on-line does not come out of Quiroz Corradi's own pocket ... and, bearing in mind his long professional association with Luis Giusti and the latter’s role as energy adviser to the Bush government, it would seem more than probable that these funds are channeled by Giusti to Quiroz Corradi from US government coffers.

• This assertion is also backed up by the fact that both Quiroz Corradi and Giusti were planning to privatize PDVSA and take their slice of the cake for services to the empire, and their link must now be even tighter than before due to their reciprocal hatred of Chavez and the Bolivarian Revolution.

We have here a situation where the opposition web sites are accepting US government funding to play their role in overthrowing the current Venezuelan government ... by fair means or foul ... in the same way as Sumate tried by committing electoral fraud.

Sumate's directors will soon go to trial, as will Quiroz Corradi ... and all are facing up to 16 years behind bars.

Is their really any difference between the opposition web sites ... wherever they are based ... taking money from a foreign power interfering in Venezuelan sovereign affairs ... with the objective of undermining and/or ousting the government ... and receiving funds from the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) ... illegal under the Venezuelan penal code? There appears to be no difference.

These activities could also fall into the category of Treason against the Homeland (Traición a la Patria) which is a serious criminal offense, and this law is applicable to Venezuelans engaging in these acts outside national borders.

Thus, Boyd, Pedro Pablo Aguilar, Giusti, Quiroz Corradi and Gerard Jubert could all find themselves in hot water.

• Boyd has called for violence in Venezuela against the government more than once in his web site ... which might be punishable in the UK, but definitely is in Venezuela.

The opposition web sites should also realize that they who run their sites on a daily basis, write the articles, collect and distort "news" etc., are nothing more than pawns on a much bigger geopolitical chessboard ruled by the need of the US for cheap energy resources from Venezuela, since its military adventure in Iraq appears to have crashed and burned judging by the amount of resistance being put up by the sovereign Iraqi people.

We at VHeadline, actively encourage both the Ministry of Communication & Information (MinCI) and the Interior & Justice Ministry to look into the activities of these traitors to the homeland, whether they be in Miami, New York or London.

• A serious crime may be being committed here and neither we, nor the Venezuelan people, want to see any more impunity at work in favor of the corrupt ex-ruling classes.

To conclude, I predict as surely as the rising sun that the comeback from the opposition will be: ”Well, who is funding you then? Chavez?"

Whether Chavez pays wages or funds is not the question, as this is NOT illegal under Venezuelan law.  VHeadline will accept advertising revenue from any open and legitimate purchaser (yes, even from Gustavo Cisneros!) despite the rather counter-productive (for them!) blockade enforced by certain elements of the anti-democratic Venezuelan business community.

But forget it if you believe advertising revenue plays any part in editorial decisions by this e-publication -- our stated goal is in support of democracy, self-determination and the pursuit of Venezuela's sovereign independence without interference. Our declared editorial bias is most definitely pro-Constitutional, pro-Democracy and pro-VENEZUELA.

However ... it is illegal to receive funds from a foreign power for the nefarious purposes of overthrowing a democratically-elected and properly constituted government.

... and that is the nub of the question.