<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
</head>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" text="#000000">
<div id="container" class="container font-size5 content-width3">
<div id="reader-header" class="header" style="display: block;"
dir="ltr"> <font size="-2"><a id="reader-domain" class="domain"
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/12741">https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/12741</a></font>
<h1 id="reader-title">Media Deliberately Omits Critical Info to
Demonize Venezuela</h1>
<div id="reader-credits" class="credits">By Lucho Granados Ceja
- TeleSur English , October 25th 2016</div>
</div>
<div class="content">
<div id="moz-reader-content" class="line-height4" dir="ltr"
style="display: block;">
<div id="readability-page-1" class="page"
xml:base="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/12741">
<div class="content-text-inner">
<p class="p1">The announcement from Venezuela's electoral
authority that it would not proceed with a recall
referendum has unleashed yet another wave of critical
articles and opinion pieces throughout the
English-speaking media, labelling the socialist
government in Venezuela as “authoritarian” or even a
“dictatorship.”</p>
<p class="p1">It is a tired tune that people who follow
political developments in the South American country
have heard consistently throughout the 18-year process
known as the Bolivarian Revolution.</p>
<p class="p1">Despite the fact that the Venezuelan
government's democratic credentials have been affirmed
repeatedly—including by groups who cannot be considered
to be partial to the government, such as the Carter
Center—private media outlets insist on labeling the
Maduro administration “undemocratic." </p>
<p class="p1">Media outlets are fully aware that if they
were to be honest in their reporting about Venezuela,
the narrative that the country is not a democracy would
collapse under the weight of its own insincerity.</p>
<p class="p1">Thus private outlets have consistently and
deliberately omitted critical information about recent
developments in Venezuela.</p>
<p class="p1">Many outlets, such as ABC News, have
completely failed to mention that the
opposition-controlled National Assembly is currently in
noncompliance with a ruling from the country's Supreme
Court, therefore its actions have no legal standing.</p>
<p class="p1">The right-wing leadership insisted on
swearing-in three lawmakers despite the fact that their
elections are in dispute over several serious fraud
allegations. In a de-facto acknowledgment of the court's
authority and ruling, the leadership of the Venezuelan
parliament first respected the order and withdrew the
three lawmakers, only to turn around and re-seat them
later.</p>
<p class="p1">Those that do mention the assembly's
contempt of court, such as Al Jazeera, are quick to
point out that the Supreme Court has overturned a few
bills the parliament has passed. </p>
<p class="p1">What they fail to mention is that some of
the bills passed by the right wing are so flagrantly in
violation of the constitution that one would be
hard-pressed to find a legal scholar who would argue in
favor of their legality.</p>
<p class="p1">As an example, in its mission to oust
President Nicolas Maduro, the right-wing leadership of
the assembly tried to retroactively shorten Maduro's
term. One need not be a constitutional expert to see how
that would run contrary to the will of the Venezuelan
people who elected him to serve a six-year term in 2013.</p>
<p class="p1">In March, the assembly approved a highly
controversial bill aimed at granting amnesty to a wide
range of crimes committed by supporters of the
opposition, including violent protests in 2014, known as
guarimbas, that left dozens dead. Relatives of victims
of right-wing political violence denounced their efforts
to pass such legislation that would essentially absolve
the perpetrators of violence. The bill never became law
due to its unconstitutionality.</p>
<p class="p1">Outlets also fail to mention that despite
their name, Venezuela's opposition is deeply divided,
with different factions pursuing radically different
strategies. In reality, the only thing that unites the
so-called Democratic Unity Roundtable is their
opposition to the ruling United Socialist Party of
Venezuela.</p>
<p class="p1">It is this disunity that led to their delay
in initiating the recall referendum, making it all but
impossible that a recall vote would occur this year. </p>
<p class="p1">The opposition is no position to plead
ignorance, they attempted a recall once before in 2004
against former President Hugo Chavez. That is to say,
they were fully aware that the process takes
approximately eight months. </p>
<p class="p1"><img
src="cid:part2.94BDD409.59AE1DB6@freedomarchives.org"
alt="" moz-reader-center="true" height="397"
width="397"></p>
<p class="p1">Yet the opposition insisted the recall
happen in a rushed manner, and as a result, they
submitted a high number of fraudulent signatures—the
very same that have now led to the suspension of the
entire process. Had the opposition faithfully followed
the requirements of the recall process, the government
would have been powerless to stop the recall vote from
taking place. </p>
<p class="p1">This a fact that always goes unmentioned by
the private media when they report on the recall
referendum.</p>
<p class="p1">Disinformation and manipulation are the
modus operandi of the Venezuelan opposition and their
media lackeys, both domestic and international.</p>
<p class="p1">Recent events in the country mirror the
lead-up to the 2002 military coup against Chavez. Before
staging the short-lived coup attempt, media outlets
demonized the Venezuelan government, utilizing the very
same language now being used against Maduro.</p>
<p class="p1">In 2002, the right-wing opposition tried to
delegitimize the Chavez government, staging protests
calling for his ouster, and asking for international
bodies to intervene. </p>
<p class="p1">The role of the media in setting the
conditions for the coup attempt to take place was
instrumental, so much so that one of the coup supporters
even went on television to thank the private media for
their role in the coup. In fact, it was that very same
manipulation by the media that led Chavez to create more
publicly owned media outlets, such as teleSUR. </p>
<p class="p1">The resolution issued by the
opposition-controlled National Assembly has parallels to
another dark episode in the political history of Latin
America, the 1973 coup in Chile against
democratically-elected President Salvador Allende.</p>
<p class="p2">Only months before the violent military coup
on September 11, 1973, the Chilean parliament approved a
resolution accusing the Allende government of acting
unlawfully and calling for the armed forces to act to
restore the constitution.</p>
<p class="p1">Like Venezuela today, international outlets
jumped on this resolution, offering it up as proof that
Allende was the head of a totalitarian regime. That
media manipulation helped lay the groundwork for the
coup. </p>
<p class="p1">The opposition coalition appears to be
following that script, calling for a major protest
Wednesday, dubbed "The Takeover of Venezuela"—something
that government supporters view as an effort at
destabilization and a precursor to the kind of violent
protests seen in 2014 or even another coup attempt.</p>
</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<div class="moz-signature">-- <br>
Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
415 863.9977
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.freedomarchives.org">www.freedomarchives.org</a>
</div>
</body>
</html>