Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has announce the formation of an international news channel focused on Latin America called Telesur. Described as an "al Jeezera for South America", Telesur is due to launch on May 24. The station's launch is primarily being funded by Venezuela, which owns 51 % of the media outlet’s stock, although Argentina owns 20%, Cuba 19% and Uruguay 10%. Thus far coverage of this upcoming news outlet in the US media has been limited, with one story appearing in USA Today. As with all US corporate media coverage of anything related to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, this USA Today article is rather critical of Telesur. This hostility in the US press toward Chavez is surpassed only by the hostility displayed by the privately owned press in Venezuela, which has a long history of disparaging the populist president whenever possible.

Telesur is slated to be run by Uruguayan journalist Aram Aharonian, who will be the general director of the channel. Describing it as "the first counter-hegemonic telecommunications project known in South America" Aharonian promises that Telesur will be different from other news channels. For example, the lead anchor will be Ati Kiwa, an indigenous Colombian woman who will read the news while wearing her traditional native dress. The ethos of the station echoes the populist rhetoric of Chavez's "Bolivian Revolution." To quote Aharonian; "We will focus on doing the opposite of commercial television. We will search out the protagonist role of social movements, people, communities, and towns." (full interview with Aharonian here)