Televisora del Sur (Television of the South), or Telesur, began broadcasting from Caracas on July 24, the day South American independence leader Simón Bolívar was born. Telesur was created by the Venezuelan government in association with the governments of Argentina, Cuba and Uruguay to provide a counterweight to corporate channels such as CNN and Univision. The station will draw on material produced by independent mediamakers throughout Latin America and the Caribbean for much of its programming.

According to its director, Telesur "was born out of the need to give voice to Latin Americans confronted by an accumulation of thoughts and images transmitted by commercial media and out of the urgency to see ourselves through our own eyes and to discover our own solutions to our problems."

On July 20, before Telesur even began broadcasting, the lower house of Congress in the United States passed an amendment to finance radio and TV broadcasts to Venezuela intended to counter Telesur's "anti-americanism".

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