Charlie Devereux
Charlie Devereux covers Venezuela for GlobalPost. He has written about Caracas' spiraling homicide rate, inflationary economies in Latin America, cult religions and the politicization of...
Hugo Chavez — public relations master
If recent events are anything to go by, Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez is a master in PR.
Chavez's solution when dealing with bad publicity is simple: go on the attack. Potentially damaging news is swiftly cancelled out with diversionary tactics.
Last month, revelations that the Venezuelan army had provided Colombia's largest guerrilla group, the FARC, with anti-tank rocket launchers were quickly forgotten when he went on the offensive about Colombian plans to allow US forces access to military bases.
Then last week, synchronized worldwide marches against him quickly melted into the background when he stepped onto the red carpet at the Venice film festival to attend the premiere of Oliver Stone's documentary about him, South of the Border.
Yesterday, another potentially damaging revelation emerged: the Andorran government has frozen bank accounts belonging to family members and Venezuelan militaries closely linked to him following a request by the US Treasury Department. According to the Diari d'Andorra, the accounts could be linked to the funding of terrorist groups.
What diversionary publicity masterstroke do you think he will come up with this time?
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