Flares and Medallions Live Again on Chavez's Socialist Tv

Big hair, big teeth, big cars: the American way might have a 1970s look but it is alive and well in the crucible of Venezuela's socialist revolution.

A public service TV channel launched by President Hugo Chávez is relying on low budget US movies to fill the airwaves, giving a new lease of life to forgotten films featuring medallions, flared jeans and synthesizer music.

Televisora Venezolana Social, (TVes), has a mandate to wean Venezuelans off western-style capitalist consumerism with programs that promote the government's leftwing agenda.

But since its launch on May 28 the channel has shown American films, dubbed into Spanish, which have not been screened since Richard Nixon occupied the White House. It has also aired French cartoons, Brazilian puppet shows, Argentinian soaps and Soviet films. The programming has prompted complaints that the channel, which had less than a month to prepare, is failing to offer viewers an attractive alternative to the soaps, gameshows and Hollywood gloss which are standard fare on other networks.

"It's a little ironic that so much of the content is American given that it's supposed to provide an alternative. The programming is a little disheveled," said Arturo Sarmiento, the president of TeleCaribe, a free to air regional channel. "But given that they had so little time they've done all right and I think it'll get better."

A Miami-based production company, Wide Angle Productions, has said that several of its shows were screened without permission or payment. Venezuelan filmmakers said they were being asked to supply content at bargain prices.

TVes replaced RCTV, Venezuela's oldest and most watched private channel, after the government refused to renew its license. In addition to soaps and shows such as Who Wants to be a Millionaire the channel waged a relentless campaign against Mr Chávez and supported a coup which briefly ousted him in 2002.

The non-renewal of the license has triggered almost daily street protests and accusations that free speech is being eroded. Mr Chávez said the decision was legal and TVes would democratize the airwaves by reflecting the real Venezuela. Thursday's programming included European cartoons, an exercise show fronted by a blonde kickboxer, government adverts promoting education, a three-hour speech by the president and Bambi's Youth, a 1986 USSR allegory in which humans play the role of deers.