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Outlet profile

Orinoco Tribune

U.S.-based pro-Venezuela socialist, anti-imperialist left

Owned byFounded and edited by Jesús Rodríguez-Espinoza, a Venezuelan national and former Venezuelan consul general in Chicago; no named parent company. Fiscally sponsored since May 2022 by the Alliance for Global Justice (AfGJ), a U.S. 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
FundingReader donations via Patreon and AfGJ's fiscal sponsorship platform; has received matching fund grants from Chicago ALBA Solidarity and the Task Force on the Americas. No advertising or subscription revenue disclosed.
On the administrationbroadly critical

Background

Orinoco Tribune was founded in 2018 by Jesús Rodríguez-Espinoza, who previously served as Venezuela's consul general in Chicago and was involved in founding the Venezuelan outlet Aporrea. The outlet began primarily as a translation service, rendering Spanish-language Chavista content into English for international readers. In May 2022 it became a fiscal sponsorship project of the Alliance for Global Justice, formalizing its donation infrastructure. A 2023 investigation by Venezuelan media watchdog ProBox Observatorio Digital documented that Orinoco Tribune had translated more than 645 articles from Mission Verdad, a Venezuelan state-linked media operation, describing it as part of an international network amplifying official Bolivarian narratives. In June 2025 it joined the Sovereign Media Collective (SMC), a network that formally launched in October 2025 and includes Black Agenda Report, Kawsachun News, and Venezuelanalysis; researchers have noted that SMC-affiliated journalists frequently have prior employment at state broadcasters such as RT, PressTV, and TeleSUR. Media Bias/Fact Check rates the outlet as extreme left with low factual credibility, citing selective sourcing and promotion of propaganda. Throughout the Trump administration's second term, Orinoco Tribune has framed U.S. policies — including sanctions, deportations of Venezuelan migrants, and reported efforts to pressure Maduro — as acts of imperialism and theft.

Sources

  1. Orinoco Tribune – Media Bias/Fact Check
  2. Orinoco Tribune About Page
  3. Orinoco Tribune Becomes an AfGJ Fiscal Sponsorship Project
  4. InfoEpi Lab: A State-Aligned Media Collective (Sovereign Media Collective)
  5. ProBox Observatorio Digital: Portales de la Mentira (Portals of Lies)
  6. Chicago ALBA Solidarity Matching Fund Award
  7. Ground News: Orinoco Tribune
  8. Orinoco Tribune joins Sovereign Media Collective

Profile compiled 2026-09-22; refreshed when ownership, funding, or the administration changes.

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