Politics
Despite a sore throat, a medical advice to stay silent and his promise that his TV and radio program Aló, presidente! (Hello President) would be shorter than the previous ones, President Hugo Chávez spoke on Sunday for five hours, when restarting his weekly program that he had suspended on January 11th, due to the electoral campaign for the constitutional referendum that lifted the limit on presidential terms.

Venezuela's President ordered his governors and mayors to draw "the map of the media war" to determine which media are "owned by oligarchs."

After saying that "there are not five million rich people in Venezuela," with regard to the opposition vote in the referendum, Chávez said that "were it not for the attacks, the lies, manipulation and exaggeration of the mistakes of the government" by the private media, the popularity of his government would be 80 percent instead of 60 percent or 70 percent, as he claims to have.

"Every mayor, in every city council must make an analysis. How many radio stations are there? What is the content of the programs? Every governor in his or her respective state must do the same analysis. Let us draw a map of the media war. With respect to the newspapers, how many newspapers are owned by the oligarchs in Aragua state, in the municipality of Zamora? There is also a media war on the Internet. There is a daily battle. I beg you to put at the forefront of this battle," Chávez said.

Translated by Gerardo Cárdenas

Maria Lilibeth Da Corte
EL UNIVERSAL