Hugo Chavez' "Media Guerilla" Reminiscent of Hitler Youth

Chavez labeled his new young recruits "communications guerillas" whose goal is to propagate the ideals of his socialist Bolivarian Revolution and win the media war against its enemies . They will be "commandos", he said, expressing the "message of the people" by painting patriotic graffiti and murals, distributing flyers , and participating in Internet social networks. Nationally, Chavez has taken total control over television, radio and print media, and has expressed a desire to censure the Internet as well. Perhaps these youngsters are his secret Internet weapon.

The youth squad has, among its missions, the duty to expose the truth about the failed coup against Chavez in 2002, but not of Chavez' own failed coup against the Venezuelan government of Carlos Andres Perez ten years earlier. Some parents in Venezuela are deeply troubled by the communications guerillas and have publicly voiced their disapproval, calling it a constitutional violation as well as an aberration of the educational process.

The Venezuelan school curriculum has long been revised to fit the Chavista dogma, thus Chavez had already begun using minors to secure the future of his ideology. Will Venezuelan parents come to fear their own children, as happened under so many authoritarian regimes in the past? Or, is that already happening?