Venezuela seeks oust English biz, tech terms like 'marketing,' 'mouse'

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
President Hugo Chavez's government is taking its battle against US "imperialism" into Venezuelans' vocabulary, urging state phone company workers to eschew English-language business and tech terms that have crept into the local vernacular. Through a campaign launched Monday, newly nationalized CANTV hopes to wean employees and others from words like "staff" ("equipo"), "marketing" ("mercadeo") and "password" ("contrasena"). Stickers and banners printed up by the company exhort Venezuelans to "Say it in Spanish. Say it with pride." The Communications and Information Ministry said in a statement that Venezuelans must recover Spanish words that are "threatened by sectors that have started a battle for the cultural domination of our nations."