The Western media wage ruthless information wars against nations like Venezuela that struggle against imperialism. Inside the corporate media bubble, “we only talk about that which the hegemonic power wants us to talk about.”
Disinformation Terrorism Against Venezuela
by Armando B. Ginés
This article previously appeared in The Dawn newsletter.
“Any lie is valid as long as it achieves the goal of destabilizing the minds of the masses.”
World elites dominate the main international media almost completely through an intricate network of associations that conceal the participation of transnational empires such as banks, weapons industries, energy industries, and financial and investment entities.
The New York Times, Le Monde, Der Spiegel, the Financial Times, El País—renowned newspapers and TV networks impose the views of their shareholders on current events, dictating the agenda for the millions that make up their audience.
In other words, they lead the collective attention to focus on their preferred topics while they intentionally cast a cloak of silence over other issues, according to their economic interests. As US linguist George Lakoff revealed, we only talk about that which the hegemonic power wants us to talk about. The ones who impose the framework of discussion have the bull grabbed by the horns because light is being shed exclusively on that which doesn’t harm their interests, while the deepest contradictions of the social structure are left unaddressed.
Over the last few years, the victories achieved by the left or center-left in South America—Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina—have been met with aggression by the elites, to prevent these victories from spreading out to other geographical areas. As they did with Cuba, they attacked the political leaders and tried to defame them.
“The victories achieved by the left or center-left in South America have been met with aggression by the elites.”
The disinformation war doesn’t care whether the left reaches power democratically. And it is especially brutal against Venezuela. Any lie is valid as long as it achieves the goal of destabilizing the minds of the masses.
Why now Venezuela? Because it would be an example to imitate, and its people is resisting all kinds of attacks to break its will and impose that of the national bourgeoisie and international capital. The people of Venezuela are facing a hydra of many venomous heads: the internal right-wing, the IMF, the CIA’s black money, the neoliberal governments of the region, the media conglomerate and the EU’s warm response, especially from Spain, which is acting as a platform to launch the attacks of the Western hegemonic powers.
Now that Greece has been neutralized thanks to Syriza’s submission, only Venezuela and Cuba remain as an ideological resource for mature people, and North Korea as a childish absurd to conjure the red menace on Western democracy.
However, in this scenario Venezuela is the main demon, and the reason it is so evil is that it is the country with the largest oil reserves in the world (around 300 thousand million barrels) followed by Saudi Arabia (250 thousand million) Iran (150 thousand million) and Iraq (140 thousand million).
And how is each one of these countries doing? Iraq is in permanent war thanks to the bombings of the US and Europe; Iran is always being targeted by the West; Saudi Arabia is oppressed by a feudal dictatorship which is friends with Washington and Brussels; while Venezuela is a left-wing stronghold against the “liberal” empire. This allows us to understand much better the geopolitics of those “democracies” ruled by the owners of truth of the White House and the capitals of the old Europe.
That which must never be a headline
An overview of the world shows us that some things are never talked about or only whispered. Some examples of the top of the head:
Saudi Arabia is the most patriarchal country in the world. Since 2015, 157 people were executed by the state for different crimes, which include atheism. Decapitations and crucifixions are not uncommon.
A fascist is the current President of the United States. And he reached that seat with two million votes less than his adversary. A true taste of democracy.
The regime of Rodrigo Duterte, President of Philippines since 2016, has extra-judicially murdered thousands of people allegedly linked with drug trafficking. But media is not overly concerned with this. No editorials nor big headlines, only some small admonitions here and there.
Last year, Mexico continued its ongoing massacre without a war: 23,000 people died in a violent manner. In Syria—a war target—50 thousand died.
Since the beginning of the XXI century, one Palestinian child has been murdered every three days.
According to different human rights organizations, between 74 and 156 journalists were killed in 2016. Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen and Mexico are the most dangerous countries to exercise this profession. In Mexico, 107 journalists were killed since 2000. Every now and then, some agency news report on this gets published on international press. The next day, it falls into oblivion.
“Nicolás Maduro is a scapegoat to prevent us from thinking critically about the reality that asphyxiates us daily.”
Spain, which is the most corrupt country in Europe according to several measurements, has 2.6 million people living in poverty and 10 million who are at high risk of falling in indigency. Meanwhile, in the US, 45 million are living in poverty.
Before Venezuela’s “bloody dictatorship” began in 1999, half of the population was poor. Today, the proportion has dropped by between 20 and 25 percentage points: before, there used to be 16 million hungry stomachs and eyes without a future, and now there are 6 million, which is still horrible but it evidences the efforts made by Hugo Chávez. Besides, the “diabolic Chavista regime” has educated 100 thousand children who couldn’t have gone to school otherwise. These numbers are vastly different from other countries in Africa, Asia, South America… even the US and Spain.
The truth has nothing to do with the headlines of mass media. We have to seek it beyond the lies and interests of the neoliberal elites. The fact that a leader surrounded by corruption like Rajoy and a fascist like Trump are the moral authorities that measure Venezuela’s democracy says a lot about the political stupidity of the majorities in Spain and the West.
Everything counts against Venezuela because it covers up the shame of neoliberal doctrine. And of the capitalist system. And of corruption. Nicolás Maduro is a scapegoat to prevent us from thinking critically about the reality that asphyxiates us daily. To break the fence of disinformation on Venezuela is to recover a little bit of the dignity we rented or sold for years to this global system.
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