Street children used as political tool in war on government

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Tuesday, May 20, 2003 By: Patrick J. O'Donoghue

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias is said to be annoyed by the success of the Cisneros Organization's telethon for street children last weekend, which netted $4.37 million in two days. It had been announced that the State TV channel VTV would be joining the campaign but the channel is said to have pulled out at the last minute owing to possible political fallout.

According to the organizers, the funds will be used to construct a site that will harbor 600 children in need. 

On a technical level, the successful event has been criticized because of the extended use of playback and voice dubbing by Venezuelan pop artists ...  only Simon Diaz and Franco de Vita sang live. The event took on political tones as presenter Daniela Kosan came on stage attired with the Venezuelan flag, which has become a symbol of the opposition. 

Independent observers suggest that the Cisneros Organization through its Venezuelan TV channel Venevision exploited the theme of street children to get at President Hugo Chavez Frias, who foolishly promised to rid the streets of street children within a year of taking office, calling them "children of the homeland."

The opposition hit upon the idea of raising money to help street children and have thrown the President's promise back in his face.

TV presenter, Mayte Delgado gushed patriotic statements of alleged pride of working in the media "now more than ever," in clear reference to the new government's controversial media content law. 

Opposition media bosses, Eladio Lares (RCTV) Victor Ferreres (Venevision), Alberto Federico Ravell and Guillermo Zuloaga (Globovision) were given special praise and Delgado set the house alight chanting the opposition slogan, "Not a step Backwards!" 

A snide remark from Zuloaga hammered home the content of the telethon, "we cannot guarantee that there won't be any street children in a year's time." 

TV critic, Aquilino Jose Mata has slammed the media for manipulating the telethon to show the opposition's media power and takes VTV to task for its "arrogant" attitude ..." such an event should have been an opportunity to unite the country for a cause and not to highlight demonstrations of intolerance."