As the voice of the Argentine folk singer Mercedes Sosa drifts around his tiny studio, Fernando Salas -prepares to end his daily shift at Radio Horizonte 106.7FM.

Mr Salas, a former building inspector, is one of three presenters at the station, which offers a mix predominantly of talk shows and leftwing music from the likes of Ms Sosa to the few thousand residents of Santa Juana, a poor area in the Venezuelan city of Merida.