CARACAS, Venezuela — Not long ago, Jim Wyss, a South America correspondent for The Miami Herald, was detained by Venezuelan authorities for 48 hours and questioned by military intelligence. This week, he briefly became a poster boy for Venezuelan national pride.

Mr. Wyss, who is based in Bogotá, Colombia, was surprised on Thursday to find his picture being used in an online promotional campaign conducted by TeleSur, a 24-hour news network operated by the Venezuelan government.

As part of the campaign, the network has been posting images and short videos on Twitter and YouTube, with the hashtag #AmamosaVenezuela, or #WeLoveVenezuela.

One image showed a picture of Hugo Chávez, Venezuela’s longtime leftist president who died in 2013, with the words “We love Venezuela for being the cradle of liberators.”