Alek Boyd at VCrisis recently exposed the bizarre structure of one North American Opinion Research organization, a Florida-based group that shares office space with something called ‘Petrotulsa‘ and purports to take polls in Venezuela which repeatedly claim that Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez is “popular.”

It’s nothing but a front for false propaganda extolling Chavez, which can come in quite convenient as a backstop at ballot-box stuffing time, as Venezuelans well know.

Alek’s expose has struck a nerve with the chavistas, who realize that their scam is up. Never again will they be able to release a false poll to news organizations and expect them to report it with any seriousness. Their credibility is gone. They are exposed as a propaganda front and might as well take down their shingle and go back to just being Petrotulsa for whatever nefarious reason that might be.

They know this and they’ve struck back at him in a major chavista newspaper, Ultimas Noticias, pretty much denying everything, without refuting any of Alek’s evidence. They are enraged and threatening legal action.

Alek’s response to them is to ‘bring it on.’ And then he reveals even more uncomfortable facts about this pack of chavistas seeking to save their own hides.

Go see the whole thing here.

UPDATE: Welcome, Instapundit readers. I have more on this threat business here.

e-mail: ammorayleon at gmail dot com