Mérida, 19th December (Venezuelanalysis.com) – A number of academics, journalists and solidarity activists have expressed their support for the work of Venezuelanalysis.com as the site launches its fundraising drive to maintain operations in 2015.

Venezuelanalysis.com has been in operation since 2003, covering the development of the country’s Bolivarian revolution from an independent perspective in solidarity with Venezuela’s grassroots movements.

Gregory Wilpert, an author and founder of VA.com, commented of the fundraising drive, stating, “Venezuelanalysis.com is the only English-language website that provides independent and on-the-ground reporting on what is happening in Venezuela, from a perspective that is in solidarity with the social movements of the country.

“As such, it is a unique and invaluable resource for following one of the most interesting and exciting political projects happening in the world today. Please support Venezuelanalysis.com so that it may continue its work,” he continued.

The website relies entirely on reader donations for its operation. In this year’s fundraising drive, after reaching the target of $5000 early in part due to a very generous donation, the project continues to seek donations and new subscribers to be able to advance its work and develop new projects in 2015.

In addition to providing honest and contextual reporting on the country’s current affairs, VA.com also runs a column where staff writers and outside contributors analyse and debate Venezuela’s politics, economy and society, and local voices are translated into English to inform the wider world of the debate occurring within the country.

Senior research fellow at the Council on Hemispheric Affairs (COHA), Frederick B. Mills Ph.D, commented on this aspect of the site’s work, stating, “Venezuela Analysis is the top news source for timely, on the ground, fair-minded news reporting on Venezuela and its opinion and analysis page has become a major and indispensible point of reference for research on the political, economic, social, and cultural spheres of this South American nation”.

These figures offered their comments to VA.com after the site solicited the opinion of professionals and activists whose work focuses on Venezuela to find out what aspects of the site’s work was most valued in the wider public sphere.

Another aspect of the project’s work cited was the attempt to cut through mainstream media spin, bias and distortions of the country’s Bolivarian project.

Lisa Macdonald, a journalist and co-convener of the Australia-Venezuela Solidarity Network (AVSN), stated, “While the establishment media continues to distort and work to undermine international support for the Bolivarian revolution, Venezuelanalysis.com provides an antidote, consistently supplying independent, truthful and thorough reporting on all the important developments in the Venezuelan people’s struggle for justice and socialism”.

She added, “For those of us in far-away Australia, VA’s coverage is indispensible to our ability to analyse, understand and strengthen solidarity with the revolution. VA deserves the support of all those striving to create a better world.”

Respected academic and editor of Latin America’s Radical Left: Challenges and Complexities of Political Power in the Twenty-First Century, Steve Ellner, added to these points, writing, “Venezuelanalysis has become an indispensable tool for understanding the complex political, economic and social developments in Venezuela under the governments of Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro. Venezuelanalysis helps offset the hostile reporting of the corporate media which largely mirrors the positions assumed by the U.S. government. In addition, it frames issues and raises questions that serve to deepen the analysis of what is taking place in Venezuela and, to an extent, the rest of Latin America.”

Finally, George Ciccariello Maher, author of We Created Chavez: A People’s History of the Bolivarian Revolution, concurred that VA.com’s coverage contrasted with the narrative on Venezuela set by the U.S. political and media establishment.

"Venezuela Analysis is an oasis of reliable information in a sea of misinformation, disinformation, and slander. [U.S. Republican Senator] Marco Rubio hates it - what more reason do you need to donate?," he wrote.