Voice of America expands its Latin American audience

Source: McClatchy Newspapers

Voice of America expands its Latin American audience

MIAMI, Nov 22, 2009 (McClatchy Newspapers - McClatchy-Tribune News Service via COMTEX) -- Facing a group of presidents loudly critical of Washington, the U.S. government's Voice of America broadcast is expanding its audience in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua, VOA officials say. VOA's Spanish-language division also will step up its use of Radio/TV Marti's production facilities in Miami because of budget pressures on both broadcasters, the officials added.

The VOA effort to grow its Latin American audience comes as the Obama administration tries to counter the attacks on U.S. policies by several presidents in the region: Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, Evo Morales in Bolivia, Rafael Correa in Ecuador and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua.

"Our focus is on the Andean region because of the upheavals that are going on there," said Spanish division director Alberto Mascaro. "Our second priority is Central America, especially Nicaragua and Honduras." The Andean region includes Venezuela, Ecuador and Bolivia, Colombia and Peru. Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, a Chavez ally, was ousted in July and is seeking to return to power.

VOA _ which only broadcasts internationally _ transmits its reports via shortwave radio, local FM affiliates and satellite television as well as its Web pages. Funded by the government, it is required to observe standards of "accuracy, balance, comprehensiveness, and objectivity." "We need to contribute to informed dialogue" in the Andean region and Central America, Joan Mower, VOA public relations and development director, told El Nuevo Herald in a telephone interview from Washington.

Mower said VOA has 319 affiliated radio stations in the Andean region that broadcast its free programs _ 199 in Bolivia, 77 in Colombia and seven each in Ecuador and Peru. It also has 95 television affiliates, with the largest number, 23, in Colombia. The Spanish division has 21 staffers and a 2009 budget of $3.1 million.

Read more: http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/2009/11/22/4495398.htm

On This Day: Reagan Endorses CIA Support of Nicaraguan Contras
November 23, 2009 06:00 AM
by findingDulcinea Staff

On Nov. 23, 1981, President Ronald Reagan provided the Central Intelligence Agency with $19 million in military aid to support guerrilla groups fighting Nicaragua’s Sandinista government; the decision led to the 1986 Iran-Contra affair.U.S. Provides Military Support to Contras
Nicaragua was ruled by a leftist military government that had been established by the Sandinista revolutionaries after overthrowing Anastasio Somoza Debayle, a brutal and corrupt dictator, in 1979.

The goals of the Nicaraguan government ran counter to American interests in the region and were seen as a vehicle for Soviet political strategy. President Ronald Reagan, who believed that anti-Communist insurgents should be supported wherever they might be, allowed the CIA to fund and train Nicaragua’s counterrevolutionary guerrillas, the “Contras,” primarily made up of soldiers from Somoza’s National Guard.

President Reagan signed off on a top-secret document, National Security Decision Directive 17, which gave the CIA permission to recruit paramilitary units to take part in covert actions against the Sandinista regime.

News of the CIA directive leaked to the press in 1982; Congress acted to block these operations, and by 1984 the Boland Amendment made further support of the guerrillas almost impossible. However, members of the Reagan administration continued to push for the ouster of the Sandinista regime.

In 1985, National Security Advisor John Poindexter used a third party to send funds to the Contras, sanctioning the redirection of funds from illicit U.S. sales of arms to Iran to the Contras. The deal would be made public in November 1986 by Lebanese magazine Ash-Shiraa, sparking a major political scandal known as the Iran-Contra affair.

In June 1986, the International Court of Justice ruled that the U.S. violated international law by providing aid to the Contras. The court ruled that the U.S. owed compensation to Nicaragua, but the Reagan administration ignored the verdict and the case for compensation was dropped in 1991.

More:
http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/on-this-day/November/Reagan-Endorses-CIA-Support-of-Nicaraguan-Contras.html

Would you support your taxes being used to fund Fox News because it gives people more choices? VOA is a complete joke and should be done away with.

wants to become socialist, throw out the imperialistic American corporations, that is their business NOT ours...

If the American corporations want to pay the workers fairly, pay their fair share of that countries taxes and not exploit & pollute the land & water, then I'm sure they will be welcome, but they don't want to do that...they want it ALL cheap....

Our country is our business, their countries are their business, hopefully we'll lean more toward socialism ourselves, like health care (and free education) for ALL....Europe certainly has no problem taking care of their own people, why should we always be such oppressors, to our workers and poor as well as other countries?

Why should we be slaves to these same filthy wealthy corporations who steal our tax dollars....why should we accept corporations using the CIA, and our taxes paid for military as well as other surveillance means to steal other countries resources for themselves, the corporations...These American multi-national corporations certainly don't care about the American people...just profits.

Why should we prey & topple democratically elected progressives and socialist leaders in favor of installing un-elected republican puppet dictators by force, as in Honduras, just so the rich & the corporations can profit? - Just so they can gouge & over-charge us for their ripped-off products for even more profits.

Why?