The following is a list of myths that are being spread around the world about Hugo Chavez and things happening in Venezuela since 1998, the year he was elected under the old Constitution of 1961. Some of them you have heard of any time since then, some of them you have repeated like a parrot since you read or heard about it in your more reliable source for news: CNN or FoxNews Channel. Never mind if you nod when you hear or read them or if you keep repeating them while thinking you already know everything about what is going on down here in Southamerica, here are the real truths they don't want you to know and they will never tell you about Hugo Chavez and the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela:

Myth: Hugo Chavez closed all free private-held media in Venezuela.

Reality: All the media (both private, public and religious) are open in Venezuela. If you, reader from all around the world, want to take the trouble to know by yourself all you have to do is to check these sites out: http://www.rctv.net (Radio Caracas Television, owned by the Mendoza-Phelps family, whom also owns Grupo Polar -biggest food and drinks conglomerate in Venezuela); http://www.televen.com (Televen, owned by the Camero family, whom also owns Multinacional de Seguros -insurance company); http://www.venevision.net (Venevision, owned by the latinamerican media conglomerate Cisneros Group, which includes Miami-based Univision and Venus, a porn channel available by paid TV services, whose leader is the media tycoon Gustavo Cisneros, with close ties with the cuban-american mob in Miami and George Bush senior, who eventually comes to Venezuela invited by him to go fishing swordfish in his private yacht); http://www.globovision.com (Globovision, all-news channel owned by Nicomedes Zuloaga, who also owns Seguros La Previsora, insurance company and Nucorp, advertising agency, and participates in the ownership of other important companies in many fields, and married with Amanda Gutierrez, a notorious local soap-operas actress; and Nelson Mezherane, owner of Banco Federal and El Globo newspaper, the latter currently closed because his boss didn't want to recognize his labour rights to the workers); and http://www.valetv.com/ (Vale TV, owned by the Caracas' Archbishopric of the Catholic Church, whose frequency belonged to the State and was handed over illegally by former president Rafael Caldera --1994 to1999); and then you will realize there are no messages in those sites (since it isn't known until now that Chavez is able to control the Internet) announcing their broadcasting signals (both VHF and UHF) are closed or that are being compelled to close soon. Since 1998 they have been able to air their usual "educative" and "informative" stuff: 90% american-made shows and 10% venezuelan-made shows, which 5% are copycats of the american-made shows: novelas (soap-operas), beauty contests -men and women's, quiz shows, opinion, press interviews, sports, documentaries, sermons, masses, lectures, music videos, commercial ads of all kind, etc., live, if they want to. Does that sound like a closed repressed media to you? By the way, the only time somebody actually closed a TV station in Venezuela from 1999 until today was during the april 11th 2002 coup against Chavez when Miranda's governor Enrique Mendoza sent his state police and closed VTV (state TV) after calling it "esa basura" (that piece of shit). I bet CNN and FoxNews have not said anything about that.

Myth. Hugo Chavez eliminated all opposition leaders and parties and the fact the current parliament (Asamblea Nacional) has no opposition representatives proves it.

Reality: The National Assembly (national parliament) has no opposition representatives because they refused to participate in the last parliamentary elections held in december the 4th 2005, even when all opposition parties promised to the Organisation of American States representatives and the European Union special observation mission they would participate if the Consejo Nacional Electoral (elections top authority) fulfilled its demands. Although CNE did so they decided to retire anyways as part of a wider strategy to de-legitimate the elections and undermine Chavez legitimacy and legality. There are two main reasons to explain why the opposition leaders decided to retire from the last parliament elections. N° 1, they knew they were going to get a real thrashing from the bolivarian parties supporting Chavez government. N° 2, it is a result of the long deteriorating process of the old parties that supported the so-called representative democracy (Accion Democratica and Copei), who shared power in an alternate bi-party system called sometimes la guanabana (tropical fruit green in the outside -Copei's color, and white in the inside -AD's color) and other times puntofijismo, named after the Punto Fijo manor (owned by Rafael Caldera) where the principal "democratic" leaders (Romulo Betancourt -AD, Caldera -Copei, Jovito Villalba -URD) signed a secret pact to respect alternation and not to allow progressive forces to rise within Venezuela, never mind they were in the government or in the opposition. This process started long before Chavez showed up in the political arena, specifically with the so-called "Viernes Negro" (Black Friday) in february 1983, when the government at that time (Luis Herrera, Democrat-Christian) devalued the venezuelan currency for the first time from a steady rate of 4,30 bolivars per US$ to 12-15 bolivars per US$, which consequences lasted many years (inflation, small-medium enterprises in bankrupt; and aggravated with the Caracazo, a bloody repressive action against the venezuelan people's demands against the neoliberal package imposed by the government in that time (Carlos Andres Perez, socialdemocrat) which included a sudden raise in gasoline prices, tax rate increasing, privatizations and an emphasis in macro-economic projects, in february 1989. As you can see, and if you can add, by that time Chavez was just a cadet in the military academy dreaming to become a major league baseball player. Besides, people in Venezuela still remembers the way this "opposition" opposed Chavez in the parliament: burning bills in the sessions hall in front of the TV cameras, screaming during the sessions to hinder the debates of the bills, attacking the debate director (usually the parliament's president or first vice-president) to take the microphone or the bell from him when they were about to approve a point in the agenda or pass an important law; not to mention the pathetic attempts to simulate "attacks" from Chavez supporters, as in the case of an opponent member of parliament who accused MVR's Iris Varela of scratching him in his cheek.

Myth: Hugo Chavez acts illegally and is more and more authoritarian.

Reality: Hugo Chavez was elected in december 1998 under the old Constitution of 1961, then was elected again under the new Bolivarian Constitution created and approved by the people in a popular referendum in 1999 (the only national constitution created and approved in such a way in the world at any time). Both elections were monitored and endorsed both by the O.A.S. and the European Union special observation mission. If the opposition had a 20% of participation share in the parliament it was the people's choice, and that parliament choosed the magistrates of the Tribunal Supremo de Justicia (Venezuela's Supreme Court) who stated in a unappealable sentence about the coup against Chavez in april the 11th, 2002 that it wasn't a coup but that the civilians and the militaries who participated in it were "filling a void in power" and acted in such a way "pregnated with good intentions" (http://www.tsj.gov.ve/decisiones/tplen/Septiembre/SENTENCIA%20DE%20LOS%2...), leaving that crime against humanity and the deaths caused by it unpunished. It was Pedro Carmona who, the day after the coup took an oath in front of a white sheet of paper and then dissolved all constitutional and legitimate powers to found the shortest dictatorship the world has ever know, fortunately.

Myth: Hugo Chavez is a bloody assassin that has killed many of his opponents and has many political prisoners.

Reality: The only people that has been killed since 1999 until today are agrarian leaders in Venezuela's rural areas fighting against top landowners who resist the application of the new and revolutionary Land Law (Ley de Tierras); the major of the Tovar Municipality in the state of Merida Giandomenico Pulliti, murdered by 2 sicarios in a motorcycle; special attorney Danilo Anderson, in charge of the 2002 coup investigation, burned alive with a C-4 bomb under the seat of his van (Venezuela's General Attorney has recently impeached Nelson Mezherane and Patricia Poleo -Nuevo Pais newspaper director, both suspect of having participated in the coup too); the dozens of civilians murdered by the metropolitan police led by Alfredo Pena (Caracas Metropolitan Mayor) during the march in april 10th, 2002 against Chavez that was oriented toward Miraflores (presidential office), even though that wasn't its original goal; the baby who died in the andean mountains because his father car ran out of gasoline and couldn't reach an dispensary on time or the man who died in Cano Zancudo, Merida while entering a barrel filled with gasoline and it exploded accidentally because he had to carry that barrel in his truck all the time in order to travel to Caracas and back to sell his agrarian products there during the oil strike-coup in december 2002-january 2003, among other deaths because of it. Just to mention the most notorious cases but not the only ones. During the short coup of Mr. Carmona, his followers and supporters systematically arrested all top bolivarian leaders where they could all over Venezuela: Florencio Porras, governor of Merida; Ronald Blanco, governor of Tachira, Tarek William Saab, member of national parliament; Ramon Rodriguez Chacin, Minister of the Interior at that time; and Chavez himself, not to mention all local low-range leaders who were arrested even in front of the TV cameras and related as "chavistas hordes". The current "political prisoners" (or imprisoned politicians, as we like to call them) are the same people who illegally arrested governor Ronald Blanco and are being judged for that felony; unlike the rest that committed the same crime in other states and are walking free on the streets like they did anything bad or illegal.

These are just a few myths and realities about what's going on in Venezuela and not precisely what the western media are informing you. If this article convinces you that you are being misinformed maybe in the future you will want to diversify you information sources a bit and will want to research by yourself before repeating like a tropical parrakeet all the lies and hoaxes your local media are telling you almost everyday. Don't do it in the name of Chavez but do it in the name of the Truth.-