Maria talks about her home country and the exciting things happening there as well as a few of her impressions of the United States. De los Angeles says that a lot of things in Venezuela have changed for the better since Hugo Chavez became President.
Sue Supriano's Steppin' Out of Babylon is a radio interview series covering a broad range of important issues in today's world: peace and war, human and civil rights, communication, the media, the environment, food security, racism, globalization, immigration and matters of the spirit.
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Maria de los Angeles Venezuelan journalist talks about her country since President Hugo Chavez, the important proliferation of community and independent media there and some impressions of her 3 years in the USA. Maria de los Angeles is from Venezuela. She is a journalist who came to Minnesota, USA three years ago on a scholarship to study. In this interview she talks about her home country and the exciting things happening there as well as a few of her impressions of the United States. De los Angeles says that a lot of things in Venezuela have changed for the better since Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela won in the elections of 2000. Although the alternative media started before Chavez it exploded when the coup happened. In 2000 there were 25 independent media outlets. Now there are 323 independent media outlets. Now there are hundreds of newspapers, television channels and radio stations. She says it's so important for people to explore their own way of saying things and fight against the monopoly of how to think. The diverse people of Venezuela need to explore their own culture, laws and language. The diversity of over 36 indigenous groups and the Afro-Venezuelan people want to reflect this diversity in their media. During the coup of 2002 when the US tried to overthrow President Hugo Chavez it was painful to see how the corporate media said nothing about what was going on and that it was obviously part of plan. Another president was in power for 3 days. The alternative media was ONLY media that went out in streets to find out what happened during that time. The Associacion de Medios. de Medios Communitarios is a collective of collectives of independent media organizations. This is being organized to have an umbrella to better react to covering something like another coup. In December of 2002 the second coup attack failed. So media now is organizing to be strategic when, in the future, it could be threatened with more attempted coups by the United States. But Chavez is not the revolution, people are the revolution. Elections will happen again on Dec. 24, 2006. Chavez encourages people to read the Constitution, which is a best seller and sold on street corners, and know the law. People are very educated about both global and local issues. They read a lot. They will have to stay alert with the coming election. Maria plans to go back to Buenas Aires, live in community and work with media. Date: 2006-08-20
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