dedicated its most recent programme to Venezuela. Presented by the British journalist John Sweeney, this edition titled “The Trillion Dollar Revolutionary” was broadcast on Monday 19 November 2007 on prime time.

John Sweeney - BBC journalist

The vision of Venezuela shown on this programme does not correspond to the various aspects of the true process of change happening in the country.¹

Firstly, Sweeney quotes the Venezuelan office of Transparency International to point out that Venezuela is the second country with the highest level of corruption in the Americas. It is worth mentioning, nonetheless, that Transparency International does not provide any hard data or conclusive figures to prove this point; instead, it grades Venezuela based on public opinion.

In addition, board members of the Venezuelan Office of Transparency International, such as Mercedes de Freitas and Robert Bottome, are not credible sources, for they are fully committed to the toppling of President Chávez. While the former receives funding from the US through the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the latter is the brother of the main shareholder and director of RCTV, the Venezuelan television network that played an active role during the 2002 coup d'etat against Chávez. 

Secondly, Sweeney distorts reality about student demonstrations in Venezuela. He implies that all Venezuelan students oppose Chávez. However, the truth of the matter is that the Venezuelan student population is composed of approximately 1.500.000 people, of whom only 40.000 or so actively protest against the government.

Thirdly, Sweeney criticises Venezuelan social policies and mistakenly states that 60% of the Venezuelan population live under the poverty line. According to a study by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) covering the period 2000-2006, Venezuela reduced its levels of poverty, from 37.1% to 30.2%, and extreme poverty, from 15.9% to 9.9%. 

Finally, the BBC correspondent questions the advantages of the Energy Agreement signed by the Venezuelan Government and the Mayor of London's Office. Contrary to Sweeney's perception, such agreement will directly benefit approximately 250.000 Londoners on income support while Venezuela will receive technical assistance on transport, environment, culture and tourism. Mostly poor Londoners and poor Venezuelans will ultimately gain from this scheme.

The goal of Sweeney's production is to portray President Chávez as a ruthless dictator and therefore add to the long list of international journalists dedicated to discredit Chávez and his efforts to build an egalitarian society in Venezuela.

The international community and people abroad must help Venezuelans construct such an egalitarian and democratic society by first getting objective information of, and learning about this South American country and secondly by condemning this type of irresponsible journalism.