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<h1 class="title">International Media Barely Raises Eyebrow over
Assassination of Pro-Government Legislator in Venezuela</h1>
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<p class="byline"> By <span class="author">Ewan Robertson</span>,
<span class="date">October 6th 2014</span> </p>
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<p id="docs-internal-guid-34cafe94-e72b-2a7a-bede-1efbb0c14b5c"
dir="ltr">The gruesome assassination of pro-government lawmaker
Robert Serra (27) and his partner Maria Herrera last Wednesday has
shaken the administration of President Nicolas Maduro and the
wider country. Serra was the youngest member of the National
Assembly and a rising star in the United Socialist Party of
Venezuela (PSUV).</p>
<p dir="ltr">When <a href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10944">details
of the assassination</a> first emerged, including that Serra had
been gagged, handcuffed and stabbed up to 40 times in his Caracas
home, the hypothesis that the murder was an act of political
terrorism linked to far-right extremists gained traction among
several politicians, diplomats and academics. These observers <a
href="http://steveellnersblog.blogspot.com/2014/10/chavista-leader-assassinated.html">pointed</a>
to the way Serra’s assassination was carried out, other recent
assassinations or attempts on chavista figures, the presence of
far-right armed groups in the “guarimba” barricades earlier this
year, and the emergence of videos tying far-right Venezuelan
activists with former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe. Perhaps
the most forthright and unexpected statement came from UNASUR
secretary general Ernesto Sampar, himself a former Colombian
president, who tweeted that, “The assassination of the young
legislator Robert Serra in Venezuela is a worrying sign of the
infiltration of Colombian paramilitarism”.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Venezuela’s conservative opposition has played down the
murder as just another case of common crime, drawing attention to
the high homicide rate and obliquely using the issue to further
criticise the government’s performance. This stance drew fire from
Eleazar Diaz Rangel, the editor of the country’s largest
newspaper, Ultimas Noticias, who wrote in his <a
href="http://www.ultimasnoticias.com.ve/opinion/firmas/los-domingos-de-diaz-rangel---eleazar-diaz-rangel/las-elecciones-en-brasil.aspx">Sunday
column</a> that the opposition had “missed another chance” to
distance itself from far-right violence and “those who internally
must have applauded it”.</p>
<p dir="ltr">International media sidesteps the issue</p>
<p dir="ltr">International media outlets appear to have taken a
similar approach to the Venezuelan opposition, downplaying Serra’s
assassination and the hypothesis that it was a pre-planned act of
political terrorism. As such, articles by <a
href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/10/02/us-venezuela-crime-idUSKCN0HR0B420141002">Reuters</a>,
the <a
href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-29455219">BBC</a>
and others were quick to draw attention to the country’s crime
rate in their articles reporting the high-profile murder. Perhaps
the most obfuscating article was the Christian Science Monitor
which led with, “<a
href="http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/2014/1002/Venezuelan-politician-s-murder-More-pressure-on-Maduro-to-crack-down-on-crime">Venezuelan
politician's murder: More pressure on Maduro to crack down on
crime</a>”. Fox News meanwhile headlined: <a
href="http://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/10/02/venezuelan-lawmaker-who-taunted-government-opponents-slain-at-home/">“Venezuelan
lawmaker who taunted government opponents slain at home”</a>, a
slur for which the article itself provided no evidence.</p>
<p dir="ltr">None of the articles reviewed by this author mentioned
the opinion of UNASUR secretary general Sampar or the evidence
used to suggest that the assassination may have been politically
motivated. That hypothesis, when reported, was attributed solely
to the views of President Maduro or government officials.</p>
<p dir="ltr">The second notable aspect of the coverage given to
Serra’s murder was the media’s disinterest. Many outlets gave the
event minimum reportage: the <a
href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/03/world/americas/venezuela-lawmaker-killed-in-his-home-police-say.html?ref=americas">New
York Times</a> devoted one paragraph to the murder, while <a
href="http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/pro-government-venezuela-lawmaker-slain-home-25922831">ABC</a>
went with a short re-post of an Associated Press article. Several
other principal outlets in the English speaking world did not
report the events at all. The UK Guardian, which has a
correspondent in Caracas, opted not to cover the murder. The most
recent article on the newspaper’s <a
href="http://www.theguardian.com/world/venezuela">Venezuela
section</a>, dated 24th September, is about shortages of
brand-name breast implants. On the same day, the paper also
covered the jailing of three men convicted for the murders of
former Miss Venezuela Monica Spear and her ex husband Thomas
Berry, who were tragically killed during a highway robbery in
central Venezuela in January.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Lack of interest, lack of concern</p>
<p dir="ltr">Indeed, the treatment of Serra’s murder contrasts
sharply with that of Spear’s: the latter’s received <a
href="http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/10276">global attention
for weeks</a> and generated an onslaught of criticism on
Venezuela’s crime statistics and government security policies. The
former meanwhile has barely caused international media to raise an
eyebrow. Most of the outlets which did bother to report Serra’s
assassination used the occasion to give the government another rap
on the knuckles about high crime rates, while sidestepping the
issue of far-right political violence.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Is this because the murder of a former beauty queen is
more important than that of a young left wing legislator? Or is it
because the assassination of a pro-government deputy and the
spectre of right-wing political violence are inconvenient to the
prevailing narrative about Venezuela and its government? Would
such a disinterested media tone be employed if the same act
occurred to an opposition politician and groups associated with
Chavismo were in any way implicated?</p>
<p>The answers to these questions highlight how tightly – and
uniformly – the world’s principal media outlets stick to their
negative and accusatory narrative on Venezuela, and how events or
information awkward to that narrative is either ignored, minimised
or re-interpreted. It’s another reminder of how necessary
alternative sources of information are to provide fair and
accurate reportage of Venezuela in this current, critical moment.</p>
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