News agencies condemn Obama regarding Venezuela.
The news agencies that are part of the Latin American Union of News Agencies (ULAN) rejected, in the Quito Declaration held during the organization's 4th General Assembly, the United States' decision to declare that Venezuela represents an "unusual threat and an extraordinary problem for the United States."
The decree, issued in March, came a month after the White House suspended the visas of seven Venezuelan officials and froze their assets in the United States.
The Latin American agencies also pledged to produce information that recognizes the values of brotherhood that unites the peoples of their countries, to defend democracy and respect for sovereignty, and rejected any interference in the internal and domestic affairs of each country represented there.
For Ulan, the United States' decree was an act of aggression. "Venezuela is not a threat. The Venezuelan people have a tradition of solidarity that we, Latin Americans, always remember with great affection," the news agencies noted in the Quito Declaration.
Ulan includes Agencia BrasilTélam (Argentina's National News Agency), which currently holds the presidency of the organization; Andes (Ecuador and South America's Public News Agency); IP (Paraguayan Information Agency); Notimex (Mexican State News Agency); AVN (Venezuelan News Agency); Prensa Latina, from Cuba; ABI (Bolivian Information Agency); Andina (Peruvian State Official News Agency); and AGN (Guatemalan News Agency). AGN did not send a representative to the Quito meeting.
The organization emphasized the responsibility of news agencies, as public agencies, to report the truth impartially, in order to counter biased news about the political situation in each country, as has been the case recently, according to the letter, in countries such as Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, and Ecuador.
The agencies also pledged to cover, with the depth the topic demands, the issue of violence affecting Latin American countries. Regarding this topic, the agencies recalled the cases of young people killed in clashes between drug traffickers and police in Brazilian favelas, and the disappearance of 43 Mexican students from the Ayotzinapa Rural Teacher Training School in the state of Guerrero.
With official launch of the portal which integrates news from all Ulan agencies, theansur.amA protocol was signed to better disseminate the content of all of them, not only in the form of news reports, but also photos, infographics, audio and videos.
An extraordinary meeting of the ULAN Executive Committee was scheduled for October in Caracas, and it was also decided that Prensa Latina will host a training workshop in Havana. The ULAN agencies agreed to promote at least two training workshops with the participation of two journalists from each agency, in order to also promote greater integration among those who work directly with news, so that they can learn about the realities of the other countries that are part of the organization.