US Propaganda dollars at work

[Robbien]

This is so heavy handed and crude, the only source I can imagine has to be the US Propaganda office

Peru's earthquake relief effort was shaken by a political row yesterday over food aid with labels bearing an image of Venezuela's President Hugo Chávez and criticism of Peru's government.

The cans of tuna, with labels lauding Mr Chávez and condemning Peruvian authorities as "slow, inefficient and heartless", were distributed to survivors of a quake which destroyed several towns and killed more than 500 people last week. . .

But Venezuela issued a forceful denial of any links to the polemical aid and said it might be an attempt to smear Mr Chávez as a cynical opportunist. "This is a damaging manipulation, a vile manipulation because Venezuela has brought humanitarian aid, not party politics," the country's ambassador, José Armando Laguna, told CPN Radio in Lima. "If they want, they can go and open all the bags that brought and verify there is no political propaganda."

Venezuela has sent two military aircraft with 25 tonnes of food over the Andes to Peru. Venezuela's information minister, Willian Lara, said "hidden" forces were trying to make it appear that Mr Chávez was manipulating the tragedy.

. . .

The story broke in the Lima daily Expresso, a newspaper hostile to Mr Chávez.

The label on the cans reads: "In the face of the natural disaster ... the Peruvian Nationalist party, along with our sister Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, its leader Hugo Chávez and our leader Ollanta Humala, makes itself present because the Peruvian government acts in a slow, inefficient and heartless manner, not caring about the pain of the victims and leaving them suffering from hunger, thirst and theft."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/venezuela/story/0,,2153685,00.html

I can just see Cheney/Rove/Harris/Negroponte grinning ear to ear.