CARACAS, January 12.- Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan president, today denounced the constant attacks on Cuba generated by the government opposition and the privately owned media, Prensa Latina reports.

Speaking on his radio and television program “Aló Presidente,” transmitted for more than six hours from La Guaira port in the state of Vargas, the Venezuelan leader mentioned the calumnies circulated on cooperation between the two countries.

“We sell oil to Cuba on the same terms as to other Caribbean nations, we do not donate anything. It would be more accurate to say that Cuba donates a lot to us,” he added.

He referred to the free medical services on the island for thousands of Venezuelan patients, which include the costs of accompanying family members, and thanked President Fidel Castro for that gesture.

In the studio he introduced a Venezuelan aviation sergeant, Eric Vera who, despite being written off by national physicians in terms of resolving a massive malformation of his frontal bone which he had for two years, was operated on and cured in Cuba and is now leading a normal life, “thanks to Fidel, to the Cuban doctors and nurses and all those caring for our people in Cuba,” Chávez reiterated.

Prensa Latina reports that the Venezuelan government has initiated legal proceedings against the private TV channels, accusing them of being part of a conspiracy to overthrow his government.

Announcing the news during the transmission of “Aló, Presidente,” Chávez referred to the diffusion of war propaganda and discriminatory messages by those media, utilizing censure in the case of public officials.

He exposed the anti-Venezuelan activities undertaken abroad by Gustavo Cisneros, the proprietor of the Venevisión channel, and recalled that the general command of last April’s coup d’état functioned from that TV station’s offices.

(Granma)  January 13, 2003