This story is absolutely accurate. There are many, many newspapers here, and the overwhelming majority are published by anti-Chavez companies. The U.S. State Department and U.S. media continually accuse Chavez of suppressing the opposition press, but the opposition press controls most of the print media here and much of the TV programing. They publish quite freely and openly criticize Chavez and the government.

The news published in the U.S. about Chavez and his socialist government is full of totally false allegations. They fear printing the truth about Venezuela because U.S. citizens might start fighting for similarly helpful social programs -- like totally free medical, dental and optical care, free public education to the doctoral level, low cost food markets and government loans for buying houses and starting small businesses and cooperatives. Given that the corporate banksters in the U.S. have totally destroyed the U.S. economy, such programs are desperately needed by all Americans.

While the U.S. Department of Education reports that 47 million Americans are functionally illiterate, illiteracy, which was common before Chavez was elected to office in 1998, has almost disappeared here. Poverty has been halved. We need to do the same in the U.S.