On July 31st, the state owned media community television station ViveTV became a victim of terrorism. The Vive branch in Zulia state was struck with several bullets in a drive-by shooting. Thankfully, there have been no reported deaths.

The president of Vive television, Ricardo Marquez, says the security saw a white Jeep Grand Cherokee pull up to the building. It Proceeded to roll its winds half way down and begin spewing bullets into the building. Police have reported that the vehicle had been stolen 10 minutes before the incident. The owner of the vehicle is not being held as a suspect.

Marquez says that the building was most likely targeted because of its high profile appearance in the media. He believes the incident was intended to intimidate the workers and management.

Vive is a state owned television channel dedicated to cultural and education shows. However this station is unique in that its content is 90% generated outside the studio. Its content created by grassroots and community-based organizations that have nothing to do with corporate sponsorship or much in the way of money making enterprises. It is a community television channel.

Mendez has also said the Zulia branch has “always been in the eye of the hurricane, has worked in the mountains with the indigenous communities, with the rural workers, and with the most exploited people of the [region of the] South of the Lake, and against mafias who go about openly in Zulia and who generate a climate of anxiety and insecurity”.

According to the radio station Mundial, the workers at Vive have said that they are not intimidated by such tactics. They will continue the battle to free communication from corporate control and make sure it stays in the hands of the people.

Many members of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) have demanded an enquiry into who attacked the community television station. The call for an investigation cannot be denied, all freedom loving Venezuelans want those who would attack workers and their pro-people work brought to justice.

I am certainly of the opinion that this attack was carried out by reactionary elements within the South American nation. Since the first election of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez the US has been putting hundreds of millions of dollars into subverting the victory of the Bolivarian Revolution.

Once the source of this cowardly terrorist attack is discovered, I am confident that there will be a trail of money leading to the US government. The American tax payers are certainly paying for this violence perpetrated against the Venezuelan people.