Venezuela, Not for Sale. (live-blogging)

I am writing this from a session called "Venezuela, Not for Sale" in Prince Hall. It's being run by Natali Fani, who is the Associate Director of the Venezuela Information Office. (VIO)

As I understand it, the VIO is essentially a public relations firm on behalf of the Venezuelan government to help counter the media spin the American people have about what is going on. I'm pleased she's upfront about the nature of her organization.

It's a rather interesting discussion about the misperceptions about Chavez.

I will update this post several times this hour as the conversation develops.

11:10 EST: We are learning about how Chavez is demonized in the US media. Fani has introduced Marcia Campos, the president of the Women's International Democratic Federation. (WIDF). Campos says Venezuela is very friendly toward women's rights. As an example, Campos points out Venezuela has 5 branches of govt, and four of them are controlled by women.

11:15 EST: Fani is talking about Jose Padilla, Luis Posada Carriles, the (alleged) terrorist who lives in the US who the American govt refuses to extradite. She points out that that he is wanted in Venezuela, but the US media does not pay attention to Chavez's work against terrorism and drug dealing.

11:20 EST: Here's a photo taken three minutes ago. (left)

Ms. Fani is telling the group that congress wishes to give 10 billion for the American propaganda vehicle "Voice of America".

She points out that VIO has to fight a lot of ignorance that is pumped out by the Voice of America in South America, and it's frustrating more Americans don't bother to get more educated about how their tax dollars are used.

11:30 EST: It's hot in this room. There is no A/C... the room is being cooled by two huge electric fans. There are about 15 - 20 people in this small room.

11:35: Fani has given the floor to Marcia Campos. She says that the media is very unfair to Chavez's government. As an example, she reminded us that once her organization have him a rose, and the anti-Chavez media gimped the image to make it look like a gun. (I didn't know this! I googled the issue, and the facts check out)

Guess which image the US media picked up?

11:45 EST: Fani continues giving examples about how the US media refuses to publish pro-Chavez information. She says the Venezuelan Ambassador to the White House, Bernando Alverez, will be in Texas on July 9th in an attempt to educate average Americans about Chavez.

11:55 EST: Fani says Venezuela and the United States are natural friends, but the media makes Chavez out to be some kind of dictator. She is open to any advice on how to reach out to US Indy media. Several people in the group have said she should go on speaking tours.

12:00 EST: I'm fretting out the punctuation and grammar for this post.

12:01 EST: Someone just walked into the meeting and started talking about oil and domination. Kinda off-topic, but that's fairly typical of when Liberals have meetings like this. ;)

12:05 EST: Topic has shifted back to media access for pro-Chavez views. Gregory Wilpurt of the website VenezuelaAnalysis.com has said a lot of people ask him for information about Venezuela and sometimes he can't get info fast enough.

12:10 EST: Fani says it's not that she wants to control the media, she just wants reporting to be fair. For example, she admits Venezuela is still struggling against corruption.

12:15 EST: Fani says her organization sends corrections with info when they find false reporting.

12:25 EST: Meeting is over. Good session.

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