Available in English Commercial No | Created by Gregory Wilpert | |
Slogan(s) News, Views, and Analysis Website www.venezuelanalysis.com Alexa rank 728,270 (Global, September 2015) | ||
Venezuelanalysis.com is a left-leaning, pro-Bolivarian Revolution news website. Its founder Gregory Wilpert characterizes the website as "a left social movement perspective on the Bolivarian Revolution in the English language. It's a fairly rare perspective, in that it is clearly pro-Bolivarian Revolution, but also critical of some aspects from a leftist perspective." Wilpert stated in a 2007 interview that the site had received funding from grassroots donations, from the Venezuelan government's Ministry of Culture and from mutual support agreements with other groups, such as Green Left Weekly. According to the website (2014), it relies entirely on reader donations.
Contents
Founding
Greg Wilpert founded the website in 2003 with Martin Sanchez, one of the founders of Aporrea.org, a pro-Chavez website, who set up the "technical side" of the site. The set up of Venezuelanalysis.com was also aided by the Venezuelan government.
Organization
Venezuelanalysis.com says it is a "project of Venezuela Analysis, Inc., which is registered as a non-profit organization in New York State and of the Fundación para la Justicia Económica Global, which is registered in Caracas, Venezuela". As of 2009, Venezuela Analysis, Inc. is registered as a domestic not-for-profit corporation in New York State.
Support
In 2007, Wilpert stated the site had received "some funding" from the Venezuelan government's Ministry of Culture, in addition to accepting "grassroots donations". He also indicated that Venezuelanalysis.com had "mutual support agreements" with the groups Green Left Weekly, Alia2, and "briefly" with TeleSUR, along with other organizations. Venezuelanalysis.com has also used the Center for Economic and Policy Research as their only source of economic indicators for their website since 2007.
Up to February 2014, Venezuelanalysis.com's 'about' page stated that its "Web server services and bandwidth is donated by Aporrea.org, a larger site maintained by grassroots groups in Venezuela" and as of April 2014, the website said that Venezuelanalysis "depend[s] 100% on reader donations and receive[s] no funding from any governments".
Personnel
Gregory Wilpert, founder and editor, describes the website as providing, "a left social movement perspective on the Bolivarian Revolution in the English language. It's a fairly rare perspective, in that it is clearly pro-Bolivarian Revolution, but also critical of some aspects from a leftist perspective." The Global Post described Wilpert as "perhaps the most prominent Chavista." Wilpert's wife Carol Delgado was named Consul General of Venezuela in New York in 2008.
According to Venezuelanalysis.com, "as of early 2008 its writers are all working on the site from their homes in various places in Venezuela, with volunteers contributing from around world." The website also lists contributors from England, Australia, and the US with a mix of activist and academic credentials, including authors Eva Golinger and Nikolas Kozloff, who periodically contribute to the site.
Reception
Venezuelanalysis.com is "pro-Bolivarian Revolution"; other sources say it is "left-leaning". In a May 2004 wire concerning the Venezuelan government's use of Bolivarian propaganda, the United States government placed Venezuelanalysis.com on a list of websites that the Venezuelan government allegedly used to "spread its war on the oligarchy, neoliberalism, the United States government, and the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas". According to Brian Nelson, author of The Silence and the Scorpion, Venezuelanalysis.com performs "damage control" for the Venezuelan government and "tried to discredit virtually every independent human rights study" while Hugo Chávez was in office as part of "an integral part of Venezuela’s propaganda complex," according to Venezuelan government sources.
According to Venezuelanalysis.com, the website has been endorsed by notable leftists and Chávez supporters such as John Pilger, Marta Harnecker, Noam Chomsky and Oliver Stone. Chomsky wrote that "Venezuelanalysis.com has regularly provided very useful description, analysis, and commentary on developments in Venezuela, rarely available in the US or the West generally, and valuable for a balanced understanding not only of Venezuela but of Latin American generally in the current very exciting phase of its history.”