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JOINT DECLARATION OF THE NATIONS MEMBERS OF THE BOLIVARIAN ALTERNATIVE FOR THE PEOPLES OF OUR AMERICA ON THE OCCASION OF THE INAUGURATION OF THE NEW TELEVISION OF THE SOUTH

The republics that are part of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Peoples of America wish to express our firm support to the sovereign decisions made by the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, with regards to the administration of her radioelectric space, and the 
related telecommunications services.

The full exercise of the sovereignty of nations and States entails free will to determine the conditions under which private entities can use their respective radioelectric space, by using the State institutions legally and institutionally created to this effect. Therefore, any attempt made by any international organization or by any other nation, with the objective of dictating guidelines in this respect, constitutes an unacceptable limitation to the self- determination of nations.

Those who attempt to intervene, base their vision on the old and decadent international order of information and communication, which has established a media dictatorship throughout the world, supported by the impressive development of telecommunications that has taken place during the last decades of the 20th century.

The control of science and technology has allowed a limited group of nations to control the principal media corporations so that they can spread biased messages from those centers of power. They have also censored the dissemination of truth when it evidences the wickedness and cruelty prevailing in their actions. Their attention is directed to protecting their interests, even at the expense of destroying thousands of human lives and even whole nations.

This has been evident in the Afghanistan wars, the Gulf war, the illegal detention camp at Guantanamo and the genocide that is taking place against the Iraqi people. The large media corporations distort the truth about these atrocities, establish different forms of censorship and blatantly lie in order to sustain an international order based on force and terror, dominated by the United States of America.

For the last eight years, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has pursued the development of an independent and sovereign media policy. This is evident in the complete democratization of the country’s radioelectric space, through the appearance of over three hundred community radio stations, quality TV stations such as TELESUR, and the construction of satellites like the Simon Bolivar satellite, which is being built with the cooperation of China, and will be launched in 2008.

Recently the Constitutional Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has decided to launch a new television service of social character, which will be offered as a public service based on the full exercise of the powers bestowed to the Venezuelan State by the Constitution.

This initiative is part of the Venezuelan government policy that fosters the creation of new communicative paradigms for a fairer world, which we wish to create from the ALBA. The new world order of communications demands that instruments are subject to the concepts of peace, human coexistence, solidarity and respect between peoples. We have no doubt that TVES, the Venezuelan Social Television, constitutes a transcendental step in this direction.

Bolivia, Cuba and Nicaragua, Republics that form the ALBA, along with Venezuela, support and celebrate the sovereign decision adopted by the government of Venezuela to construct TVES, and consider this a historical event. We continue to share our perspective and willingness to strengthen the constitution of our peoples into the kind of union that Simon Bolivar called '”Our nation of republics”.

Caracas, 3rd June 2007.

On behalf of the Government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela 
Hugo Chavez Frias 
President

On behalf of the Government of the Republic of Nicaragua 
Daniel Ortega Saavedra 
President

On behalf of the Government of the Republic of Cuba

Martha Lomas 
Minister of the Government of the Republic of Bolivia

Jorge Alvarado 
Business Manager at the Bolivian Embassy in Venezuela 

(Translation for Portal ALBA by Damaris Garzón)