War on Hugo Chávez

They discuss recent developments. A high-level Venezuelan politico mentioned the Guarimba. An anti-Guarimba law was passed in Nicaragua. Chávez in a recent speech referred to Sharp and a golpe suave — gentle coup — being planned from Miami. Alonso delights in needling the Venezuelan leader. "Chávez says, 'We have been watching them in Miami,'" he says in a gruff voice. Then he pumps his finger in the air and breaks into snickers. "And I say, I'm watching you from there."

A Venezuelan mortgage broker, Edgard Paredes, launched Venezuela Sin Mordaza July 24, using about $20,000 of his own money. The paper has swollen from 20 to 28 pages, and Paredes claims it's now self-sustaining. Along with radical anti-communist stories are breezy entertainment features like "The Prince of Salsa" and sports stories, such as one about car racing. Advertisers include a vegetarian restaurant, car dealers, and travel agencies.

Paredes is a 49-year-old former radio broadcaster who moved to the United States from Caracas in 1998. He started the newspaper to fend off Chávez's power grab: "We have to move from the defensive to the offensive," he says. "No boxer ever wins defending himself."

Paredes and the first editor, Ricardo Guanipa, quickly parted ways because the publisher wanted a tougher anti-Chávez stance. Not a problem for Alonso. (One headline from when he first took over: "A Country on the Defensive Will Never Topple a Tyrant!")

And the paper prints unapologetic anti-Chávez and anti-Castro cartoons. One shows Chávez in a straitjacket with the heading "Looking for an Escaped Loony!" Another includes Castro struggling under a mound of microphones and the tag Freedom of the Press and Expression. Miami's Cuban exile community has supported the Venezuelan opposition.

The September 13 edition of the paper featured a front-page graphic titled "Resistance Cells." It exhorted each Chávez opponent to contact five others; doing so would create an organized resistance. A quote accompanies the graphic: "Only God is more powerful than people united in a civic, active, general enduring revolt."

Alonso contends the paper has impact. One week after the graphic in Venezuela Sin Mordaza was published, he claims, 3000 cells including 15,000 people had formed in Venezuela. Asked how he knows that, he says people report back from Venezuela. He says he's working with others to form cells in Nicaragua and Cuba.

While her brother calls for a revolt from Miami, Maria Conchita Alonso criticizes Chávez in other ways. The actress, who has played Eva Longoria's character's mother on Desperate Housewives, plans to produce and act in a film: Two Minutes of Hate, based on the April 11, 2002 events in Venezuela — which set the stage for the 2004 Guarimba. "What [Chávez] wants is to have another Cuba there," says Maria Alonso, who moved from Venezuela to Hollywood when she was in her midtwenties.

The former Miss Venezuela believes it's her civic duty to oppose Chávez: "Otherwise I'm an accomplice."

Speaking from her home in Beverly Hills, she says she thinks the Guarimba could be a solution. "You're not telling anyone to go be aggressive and kill," she says, her voice wavering. "Venezuelans have to help themselves. We all have to do something."