VENEZULAN: Hugo Chavez has so far been unable to stamp out his country's poverty, writes Michael McCaughan.
Venezuela's mass media celebrated the Day of the Journalist this week by accusing President Hugo Chavez of trying to shut them down.
"It's not the media's job merely to tell the truth," said Roberto Giusti, guest of honour at a media prize-giving ceremony, "but to fight the government's attempt to impose a totalitarian regime."
Mr Giusti, a columnist with the daily el Universal, urged journalists to combat Mr Chavez, then wondered aloud why the same media was the target of popular outrage when their reporters turned up at government events.
There is no country in Latin America where freedom of expression is more effectively expressed. On arrival at Caracas airport last week, I was met by a driver from the Department of Foreign Affairs who grabbed my bags and took off in his ancient Dodge, weaving madly through the highway that links the coastal outskirts to downtown Caracas.
I settled back and awaited the traditional gibberish peddled by state-sponsored chauffeurs.
"Chavez is a disaster," I heard him say, "he's too friendly with Fidel Castro." The unsolicited diatribe continued all the way to the door of the ministry offices where the disaffected driver confidently predicted the ousting of Mr Chavez through a proposed recall referendum.
Venezuelans express themselves freely yet the mainstream media, represented by 400 radio stations, 100 newspapers and eight TV channels, pump out a steady diet of anti-Chavez propaganda. The word "totalitarian" comes to mind.
The journey into the city offers a privileged view of the contradictions at the heart of the nation's political conflict; majestic green peaks drift downward toward an impeccable coastline until a sharp corner reveals precarious shacks perched on hillsides that stretch upward to the sky.
Access to this labyrinth comes via a series of vertical staircases that would challenge a hardened rock climber. I watched an elderly woman pause halfway up one steep hill, pacing the distance that remained. The opinion polls don't consult the locals, journalists don't visit and the annual deadly mudslides exact a heavy price for the privilege of existing here.
Meanwhile the embattled President unveiled a new communication strategy this week, commandeering the airwaves with his "nation-building" programme that showcased vast public works projects under way across the country. In the absence of media coverage, Mr Chavez has recourse to "chain time" by which private stations must abandon normal programming and allow him to deliver an address.
The real news, however, occurred behind the scenes as Mr Chavez sacked his Information Minister, Ms Nora Uribe, after an embarrassing blackout during a military parade on Tuesday. The interruption of the president's address was treated initially as foul play, with four technicians of dubious ideological persuasion arrested then released. The explanation proved more mundane, a technical error at the state television channel. Someone had to pay for the loss of presidential dignity so adios Ms Uribe, the fifth occupant of this key post since 1999.
"A positive communication strategy is achieved by working with the people, not through decree," was Ms Uribe's farewell message. The comment was a thinly veiled criticism of Mr Chavez's frequent sequestering of the airwaves.
The private media affords blanket coverage and favourable camera angles to opposition events. I observed an anti-Chavez rally in a poor neighbourhood this week, one of a series of events organised by the opposition to demonstrate their support in traditional Chavez strongholds.
The media predicted a crowd of 15,000 but the turnout was well below a thousand. I approached several surly teenagers who admitted under cross-examination that they had been bused in from a neighbouring state and given a small payment to attend the rally. "We're Chavistas," they whispered sheepishly.
The parties in attendance included Bandera Roja, a Marxist-Leninist organisation which is currently in bed with Accion Democratica, a neo-liberal party which misruled the country for much of the past four decades. The opposition has unified against Mr Chavez but lacks leadership and even a hint of an alternative project.
The president is busy fighting off every fresh challenge to his administration, permanently on the warpath against his multiple enemies. There are punch-ups in parliament, mysterious explosions that leave no injured or dead and schisms in the security forces as one police force rejects Mr Chavez while another defends his rule.
The proposed referendum will be delayed due to the lack of an electoral commission. The parliament cannot agree on the five members and Mr Chavez refuses to hand over responsibility to the Supreme Court, now dominated by anti-Chavez judges.
In a previous interview with this reporter, Mr Chavez admitted that poverty and unemployment were his greatest threat. The intervening year has proved him right as he survived a military coup and a crippling general strike but faces meltdown due to a 25 per cent unemployment rate and an economy in freefall. Mr Chavez purged the army and dismissed dissident oil workers but he has yet to find a way to crush poverty and unemployment.