The Daily News, founded three years ago, has been scathing in its criticism of the government of President Robert G. Mugabe, and generally supportive of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change.
The Bush administration, which has been increasingly critical of Mr. Chávez and supportive of the opposition, called on his government on Friday to respect the rights of the people.
This swinging pendulum has placed other regional states supportive of the opposition in a troubling bind.
"There have been hundreds of cases of arbitrary arrest and detention," he added, "targeting members of the opposition, journalists, human rights defenders and their families, people attending the funerals of those who have been killed, and inhabitants of neighborhoods perceived to be supportive of the opposition".
Inaccurately declaring a "crackdown" and "asphyxiation" of the media fails to acknowledge that in Venezuela it is the private media, overwhelmingly supportive of the political opposition, which dominates.For example Venezuelan public television channels have only a 5.4% audience share.
In Berlin, too, there are mutterings of regret, that some EU foreign ministers were too supportive of the Ukrainian opposition.
"We're not supportive of or in opposition to the message," Whiteheart told CNN. "We're just the messenger".
Only Qatar remains determinedly supportive of a military opposition to Assad, but is entirely reliant on Turkey being a cooperative partner in that effort.
Mr. Chávez's so-called Bolivarian cultural revolution refocused the cultural emphasis from fine arts toward crafts, leading to an artistic upheaval that cost museum directors their jobs and prompted prominent artists to square off into opposing camps, some supportive of the country's determined opposition, others siding with the president's left-wing government.
