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In 2004, an investigative report about the Venezuela Information Office (VIO) was published. Public records, from the Foreign Agent Registration Unit of the US Department of Justice, demonstrate that VIO is nothing more than Hugo Chavez's propaganda arm in US soil. Since, it remains a proven fact that most of the benign literature and positive coverage that has been written and published about the Venezuelan pustchist comes either from employees of the Venezuela Information Office, such as Eric Wingerter of BOREV.NET, or from people with suspect relationships with VIO, such as Mark Weisbrot of CEPR.
These propagandists, none of whom are Venezuelan, feed and quote from each other in an attempt to present a coherent, objective and detached image. More often than not, when defending Chavez's stance in international media, they are presented as "independent analysts," in order to dupe the public. This controversial case of misrepresentation is especially significant in the case of one Gregory Wilpert of Venezuelanalysis.com.
Gregory Wilpert is a German-American sociologist, who landed in Venezuela sometime in the early years of this decade. In May 2002, right after the coup of April in which Hugo Chavez was removed from power for three days, a site called Aporrea (http://aporrea.org) was registered by Martin Sanchez, a Venezuelan who was, purportedly, studying IT in the USA (Chicago) at the time. Aporrea came to be Chavez's voice in internet, reason for which it received public funding, however it is published in Spanish. Therefore an English site was also required, and thus Venezuelanalysis.com was registered in August 2003, probably by Martin Sanchez. Gregory Wilpert would soon join Sanchez in Venezuelanalysis, who since November 2004, is quoted in various online publications, among which his own, as Venezuelan Consul in Chicago. Venzuelanalysis is also funded by the Chavez regime, according to another apologist.
There is an evident conflict of interests here, accentuated by the fact that Wilpert is yet to come out of the revolutionary closet and explain his relationship with the Chavez regime. While in Venezuela, Wilpert married, literally, into the revolution. Carol Delgado Arria de Wilpert has had a rather interesting, and meteoric, rise. Mrs Wilpert has performed different roles for the revolution, from International Relations Coordinator for the National Council for the Rights of Children in Venezuela and local contact of pollster Evans & McDonough, where she shared responsibilities with another VIO contractor 'environmentalist' Michael Schellenberger, to PDVSA representative and special advisor to the Venezuelan ambassador to Colombia
In the footsteps of Sanchez, Carol Delgado Arria de Wilpert has recently been appointed as Venezuelan Consul General in New York, where Wilpert is meant to be Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Brooklyn College. Each and every opinion of Greg Wilpert about Venezuela, whether speeches, online articles or books, need to be appraised under this light, that is to say, he is married to a Venezuelan public servant and his work in Venezuelanalysis has been funded with Venezuelan public funds. As any other individual, Wilpert is entitled to his opinions. What is truly despicable, intellectually dishonest and unbecoming of someone in academia, is to cloak clearly compromised views under a mantle of independence. Alas this seems to be a treat of chavistas: the case of tax fraudster Eva Golinger, who misrepresented herself until evidence emerged, springs to mind. Oddly, while evidence of the official appointment of Mrs Wilpert suggests disregard to Venezuelan and American legislation, there does not exist one single reference, official or otherwise, about the designation of Martin Sanchez as Venezuelan Consul in Chicago. Further, it is highly probable that both Martin Sanchez and Carol Delgado Arria de Wilpert have violated US travel regulations for Diplomats and Foreign Government Officials.
There is nothing wrong with being an apologist or a political hack. Gregory Wilpert can present himself as an independent all he wants. It remains factual however that, beyond Wilpert's marriage to a Venezuelan official, his work is geared at extolling a regime led by a putschist militaristic caudillo that funds and protects narco-terrorists, and whose disregard for human, civil and political rights is amply documented.
