Vivanco Attacks Telesur: The Airwaves Are Falling

Telesur, the Latin America-wide TV station that is scheduled to begin broadcasting on July 24 with start-up funds from the governments of Argentina, Venezuela, Uruguay and Cuba, is already worrying the anti-democracy crowd in the region, including Human Rights Watch "Americas Director" José Miguel Vivanco.

According to today's Chicago Tribune, Vivanco is calling upon a higher power - God herself! - to help him in his battle to discredit a TV station that he has never even watched. Vivanco said:

"If the shareholders of this company belong to a government like Cuba where they have no basic concept of free speech and zero tolerance for independent views, God help us."

In his panicked announcement that the airwaves are falling, Vivanco was joined by an old ally: Venezuelan coup plotter and media baron Alberto Federico Ravell...

Read all about Vivanco's latest anti-human rights tantrum, and the censorious history of his Venezuelan allies, via The Narcosphere:

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/7/17/9548/56987

Meanwhile. journalist Stephen Peacock pours over more U.S. government documents and finds Washington rushing to send 3,700 packages of riot gear to the Bolivian government by July 31, as well as construction of an "emergency operations center" in La Paz:

http://narcosphere.narconews.com/story/2005/7/16/14743/4150

Vivanco and Human Rights Watch, however, remain silent on that and other real threats to human rights and democracy in the region.

From somewhere in a country called América,

Al Giordano
Correspondent
The Narco News Bulletin
http://www.narconews.com

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