If the U.S. embassy in Caracas began a campaign to flood a local Venezuelan newspaper critical of the USA with negative mail — openly using Venezuelans themselves as their agents — we'd never hear the end of it as a CIA 'covert' operation. And the deceptive concept is as distasteful as it is unthinkable.
 
But that's what the activist hand of Hugo Chavez in the United States is doing now. The Venezuelan Information Office, which is financed by the government of Venezuela, yesterday announced the targeting of the Los Angeles Times because of its honest, eloquent "A Little Fidel In Caracas"  editorial Saturday, exposing the truth of what's going on in the increasingly communized country, whose democratic institutions are in collapse.
 
It's not just the Chavez regime's open solicitation of U.S. citizens to write letters to the major newspaper that's so unseemly. It's the Chavez regime's offering American citizens help to write them, to put the actual words in their mouths. And this is to falsely give the Los Angeles Times editorial board the impression that this is some sort of spontaneous grassroots effort that has sprung up to get their 'truth' out, instead of an effort of a small group of paid government agents spreading government propaganda originating in Caracas.
 
What is the Los Angeles Times supposed to think of this effort once they learn of its orchestration? Will they trust their mail again? It's one thing to print a dissenting letter from an ambassador, but quite another to not know when one is printing the results of a secretive government campaign. How will this affect legitimate citizen efforts to get their views across through letters, if the editorial board fears any letter is an organized government campaign by a small, deceptive group? I hope they strike back at this subversion. And lawmakers take a good look at this.
 
This isn't the Venezuelan Information Office's first effort, by the way. When the Washington Post wrote its excellent 'Watch Venezuela'  editorial, the VIO's ex—Global Exchangers in the service to Venezuela's dictator organized a similar campaign. Their hidden effort to subvert democracy through the use of American agents is unusually unsavory and suggests an aggressive character of operations here in the U.S. from Venezuela's oil—rich communist dictator.

Here is part of their 'action alert,' sent by email yesterday to all their friends: (for the full text click here)

Dear Friends, 
This weekend the Los Angeles Times ran a particularly misleading and 
irresponsible editorial on Venezuela titled "A Little Fidel in Caracas." 
It is critical that they hear from you to balance out the slanted 
coverage. 
 
The piece is particularly problematic because it is not an Op—Ed written 
by an independent pundit, but rather the opinion of the Los Angeles Times. 
The errors and underlying bias must be challenged.  The full text of the 
original editorial is included at the bottom of this message. 
 
WRITE TO THE LOS ANGELES TIMES TODAY! 
Letters to the LA Times should be sent to letters@latimes.com.  Letters to 
the editor should be brief (200 words or less) and must include your name,  city/state, and contact information for verification.  Letters that are  personalized, fact—based, and polite in tone are much more likely to be  published.  For more tips on writing an effective letter, please see 
http://www.rethinkvenezuela.com/take/ok—media.html . 
 
A.M. Mora y Leon   12 21 04