the United States, and considered Maduro's government as a promoter of peace". In October 2018, Telesur anchor Daniela Vielman resigned from the network, releasing a statement saying that staff employed by Telesur are "treated as if they were working in a political party" and that Venezuelan employees were paid in low-value Venezuelan bolívars compared to their foreign counterparts who were being paid in US dollars. Manipulation of photos During the 2019 shipping of humanitarian aid to Venezuela, Telesur disseminated photos of protesters that the author of said images claimed had been manipulated to make it appear that the protesters were dousing and burning humanitarian aid in gasoline. An independent investigation concluded that the original author of the photos was Karla Salcedo Flores and that the images "do not show a man pouring gasoline on one of the burning trucks during the incidents", as alleged by Telesur. Advertisements While promoting an ad campaign for the Government of Venezuela, Telesur used a photo on Twitter of Miami Herald reporter Jim Wyss arriving at the Miami International Airport after being arrested by Venezuelan authorities and interrogated by SEBIN. The Telesur Twitter campaign stated, "We love Venezuela for receiving foreigners like one of our own." The incident became popular in the international media since they found the use of the photo ironic due to the circumstances surrounding it. Telesur later removed the photo from their Twitter. Human rights Americas director of Human Rights Watch, Jose Miguel Vivanco, opposed the creation of Telesur. In 2005, Vivanco stated, "If the shareholders of this company belong to a government like Cuba where they have no basic concept of free speech and zero tolerance for independent views, God help us". Human Rights Watch also criticized the Venezuelan government in 2008 for preventing the freedom of expression of private media by blocking their expansion while strengthening the presence of Telesur and other government media in the country. Following the election of Mauricio Macri as President of Argentina, Macri and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro engaged in disputes over Venezuela's human rights, with the Argentine government later pulling its funding of Telesur in March 2016 alleging that Telesur "blocks alternative viewpoints". 2009 Honduras coup coverage A group of Telesur and Venezuelan state media journalists were in Honduras on 28 June 2009 to cover the events in relation to a non-binding referendum on the possibility of changes to the constitution of Honduras.