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href="http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14406">http://www.venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14406</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Pathological Deceit: The NYT Inverts
Reality on Venezuela’s Cuban Doctors</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">By Lucas Koerner and Ricardo
Vaz - arch 27, 2019<br>
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<p>After<a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/video/world/americas/100000006385986/the-us-blamed-maduro-for-burning-aid-to-venezuela-new-video-casts-doubt.html"> debunking</a> Washington’s
lies about the burning of “humanitarian aid” trucks on
the Venezuelan/Colombian border (more than two weeks
after being <a
href="https://thegrayzone.com/2019/02/24/burning-aid-colombia-venezuela-bridge/">scooped</a> by
independent journalists), the <strong>New York Times</strong> quickly
reverted to form in an<a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/17/world/americas/venezuela-cuban-doctors.html"> article</a> by
Nicholas Casey headlined “‘It is Unspeakable’: How
Maduro Used Cuban Doctors to Coerce Voters” (<a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/17/world/americas/venezuela-cuban-doctors.html">3/17/19</a>).</p>
<p>As the title not-so-subtly suggests, Casey claimed to
present bombshell revelations regarding the Nicolás
Maduro government’s alleged weaponization of Cuban
medical personnel as a means of holding on to power.
On closer inspection, however, the article is riddled
with factual inaccuracies, omissions and
misrepresentations.</p>
<h3><strong>Dubious claims of politicized healthcare</strong></h3>
<p>Relying on the testimony of three Cuban doctors who
have defected from the Venezuelan/Cuban health mission
and taken up residence in other countries, as well as
16 anonymous sources within Venezuela, Casey provides
the reader with shocking vignettes of how Cuban
medical personnel have supposedly been used to
manipulate Venezuelan politics.</p>
<p>One central allegation is that the Barrio Adentro
healthcare mission staff, most of them Cuban doctors,
are denying patients care on the basis of political
affiliations. One Cuban doctor currently residing in
Chile told the <strong>Times</strong> that one patient
was refused treatment “because she was from the
opposition.” The only other evidence to substantiate
this grave accusation is the account of an opposition
mayor who claims he was “denied medication.”</p>
<p>As has been widely documented (<strong>Guardian</strong>, <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/13/why-do-north-korean-defector-testimonies-so-often-fall-apart">10/13/15</a>),
defector testimonies are often unreliable, given the
political stakes involved. Similar reservations apply
to a politician aligned with an opposition
spearheading a foreign-backed <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14304">coup</a> in
Venezuela.</p>
<p>Likewise worthy of skepticism is Human Rights Watch
Americas director Jose Miguel Vivanco, whose quote,
“it is unspeakable,” gives the piece its headline,
though a reader might assume these were the words of
an actual doctor. <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10682">Human
Rights Watch</a>, whose <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10732">revolving
door</a> with the US national security state is now
notorious, can always be counted on to attack the
Venezuelan government, though its charges have been <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/8084">debunked</a> on
several <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10301">occasions</a>.</p>
<p>Vivanco is an especially dubious source, given his
extremely <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/13194">biased</a> track
record on Venezuela. Just over a decade ago, the HRW
official was publicly<a
href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2008/12/17/more-100-latin-america-experts-question-human-rights-watchs-venezuela-report"> rebuked</a> by
over 100 Latin America experts for a report on
Venezuela that did “not meet even the most minimal
standards of scholarship, impartiality, accuracy or
credibility,” which included similar sweeping
allegations of politicized denial of care, based on
the second-hand testimony of one individual.</p>
<h3><strong>Implausible electoral interference</strong></h3>
<p>The <strong>Times</strong>’ questionable allegations
of denial of care quickly give way to even dodgier
claims of Cuban doctors interfering in Venezuelan
politics. “One former Cuban supervisor said that she
and other foreign medical workers were given
counterfeit identification cards to vote in an
election,” Casey wrote, adding that Cuban doctors
“were asked to vote with false identification” in
2013.</p>
<p>Anyone who knows <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13801">how
voting works in Venezuela</a> would dismiss these
allegations immediately. The first step upon entering
a polling station is presenting ID and biometrically
scanning fingerprints. Computerized voting screens
will literally not open unless a valid fingerprint is
presented. Cuban doctors, since they are of course not
Venezuelans, would not have their fingerprints in the
system, and thus not get past this first step. (It’s
worth noting that Cuban doctors in Venezuela number
roughly 30,000, in a country with an electorate of
around 20 million, making the notion of a secret
program to enable them to vote illegally in hopes of
affecting electoral outcomes rather far-fetched.)</p>
<p>Another passage suggested a similar lack of
familiarity with the Venezuelan electoral process:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>On the day Mr. Maduro was elected to his first
term, [a Cuban doctor] witnessed officials opening
ballot boxes and tampering with votes, including
destroying ballots that chose the opposition.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>First off, there are no “ballot boxes” or “ballots,”
because voting is fully automated. After the voter
makes their selection on the computer screen, a paper
receipt is printed and placed in a box. At the end of
election day, 54 percent of all voting machines,
chosen at random, have their electronic totals
cross-checked with the paper receipts. Destroying the
receipts (not ballots) would not serve any purpose,
other than raising a red flag when they did not agree
with the electronic tally. (If the <strong>Times</strong>’
source had bothered to name the voting center, one
could check the results and confront the National
Electoral Council with any discrepancy, since the
paper tallies are kept for a number of years.)</p>
<p>Secondly, all parties or candidates have witnesses at
every electoral center. At the end of the day, the
witnesses and the electoral delegates all sign a
certificate validating the results. In the case of the
April 14, 2013 election, there was not a single
electoral center where opposition candidate Henrique
Capriles’ witnesses did not validate the results, nor
any reports of destruction of ballots, perhaps because
there are no “ballots.”</p>
<p>For someone who covers Venezuela regularly, Casey
makes a remarkable number of errors in his account of
the country’s electoral system. For example, he wrote,
“In mid-2017, Mr. Maduro made a bid to consolidate
power: a referendum for a second legislature to
replace the opposition-controlled National Assembly.”
What took place on July 30, 2017, was an election, not
a referendum, for a national constituent assembly, a
body that is outlined in Articles 347–349 of the 1999 <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/constitution/title/5">Bolivarian
Constitution</a>, and which is much more than a
“second legislature.” Furthermore, the National
Assembly was declared “null and void” by the
Venezuelan Supreme Court in 2016 (<strong>BBC</strong>, <a
href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-35287291">1/11/16</a>),
after defying a court order to unseat three
legislators pending an investigation for electoral
crimes.</p>
<h3><strong>Whitewashing opposition violence</strong></h3>
<p>Given their factual implausibility, Casey’s
anonymously sourced claims of ballot-stuffing and
illegal voting in the 2013 presidential election
represent a thinly veiled maneuver to delegitimize
Maduro’s victory, which was <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/apr/22/united-states-contempt-venezuelan-democracy">challenged
by no country in the world</a> except the United
States—a fact that is conveniently omitted.</p>
<p>One unnamed source accused the Chavista government of
“blackmail[ing]” voters that the opposition would
eliminate the Barrio Adentro medical mission if
Capriles won. Casey did not inform readers that the
Venezuelan opposition has long vowed to <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11781">suspend
bilateral cooperation agreements</a> with Havana
should it come to power.</p>
<p>Nor did Casey mention the opposition’s repeated acts
of violence against Cuban health professionals and
clinics. Following Capriles’ US-sanctioned refusal to
recognize the <a
href="http://cepr.net/documents/publications/venezuela-election-audit-05-2013.pdf">indisputable</a> 2013
election results, and his call for his supporters to “<a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LKl2ZwVNfPE">discharge
that anger</a>” in the streets, seven people were
killed in the ensuing<a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/8652"> street
violence</a> that saw 18 Cuban-staffed neighborhood
health clinics set ablaze. The violent anti-government
protests of 2014 likewise featured no less than<a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10651"> 162
attacks</a> against Cuban doctors, who were
prominently <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10547">lynched
in effigy</a>. In omitting these rather important
details, Casey succeeded in inverting reality: He
presented Cuban medical staff as witting or unwitting
gendarmes of a brutal regime, rather than frequent
victims of <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/10684">opposition
violence</a>.</p>
<p>This whitewashing of right-wing terror extended also
to Casey’s framing of the 2017 anti-government
mobilizations, which he said led to 100 deaths in a
“government crackdown,” leaving out the <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/13081">numerous
killings</a> carried out by opposition supporters,
including <a href="https://twitter.com/marcorubio">mob
lynchings</a> of Afro-Venezuelan men and <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/13089">sniper
assassinations</a> of Chavista activists.</p>
<p>In addition to relitigating the internationally
recognized 2013 election, Casey repeated the
now-boilerplate allegations of fraud in the 2018
presidential elections, pointing to opposition figures
barred from running, with “Leopoldo López…dragged
between house arrest and a military prison,” and
Capriles “banned from running, along with most
opposition parties.” Casey didn’t mention that <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/11452">López</a> was <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/11502">convicted</a> of
inciting violence during the 2014 street protests,
while Capriles was <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13040">barred</a> due
to corruption <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13576">allegations</a> that
even the opposition has moved to <a
href="http://talcualdigital.com/index.php/2018/08/23/tsj-en-el-exilio-pide-investigar-a-capriles-radonski-por-caso-odebrecht/">investigate</a>.</p>
<p>Casey’s highly selective picture of Capriles and
López is particularly disingenuous, given that both
politicians actively participated in the short-lived
2002<a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/2336?artno=2018"> military
coup</a>, with the former leading an <a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=818bu4FoIak">attack</a> against
the Cuban embassy, and both of them involved in the
mob <a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KdMM793V-Hk">kidnapping</a> of
Interior Minister Ramón Rodríguez Chacín. That alone
would have disqualified them from holding political
office anywhere else in the world.</p>
<p>It is also <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/ANALYSIS/13564">false</a> that
opposition parties were banned, since what was
required of them was to revalidate their legal status
by collecting a minimum number of signatures following
their boycott of the December 10, 2017, municipal
elections. Whether or not this was a political hurdle,
some opposition parties, such as Acción Democrática, <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/News/13621">fulfilled
it</a>. And the fact remains that opposition
candidates <em>did</em> run against Maduro, notably
former Lara Gov. Henri Falcón, who was actively <a
href="https://twitter.com/frrodriguezc/status/993305182783098880">undermined</a> by
the hardline factions of the opposition, and was even <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/ANALYSIS/13699">threatened</a> with
US sanctions for defying the opposition boycott.</p>
<h3><strong>Erasure of sanctions</strong></h3>
<p>In an article explicitly dedicated to uncovering
alleged foreign interference in Venezuelan state and
society, it is ironic that Casey entirely omitted the
most egregious form of external intervention: US
sanctions. Since 2017, Trump’s financial sanctions
have battered the healthcare system directly, with
recurring cases of medicine shipments blocked or
assets destined for imports frozen as a result of US
financial crimes enforcement <a
href="https://www.fincen.gov/news/news-releases/fincen-warns-financial-institutions-guard-against-corrupt-venezuelan-money">directives</a>,
according to Torino Capital chief economist<a
href="https://venezuelablog.org/crude-realities-understanding-venezuelas-economic-collapse/"> Francisco
Rodriguez</a>. In one such case, the Venezuelan
government <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/13519">denounced</a> the
freezing of $1.6 billion of its assets by
Brussels-based financial services agency Euroclear,
half of which was reportedly destined for medicine
imports.</p>
<p>US economic sanctions also debilitate healthcare
indirectly by decimating the Venezuelan economy
overall. According to conservative estimates, US
financial sanctions cost Venezuela at least <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14073">$6
billion annually</a> in lost revenues, or around six
percent of GDP. For comparison, healthcare spending in
Latin America<a
href="https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SH.XPD.CHEX.GD.ZS?locations=ZJ"> averages</a> approximately
seven percent of GDP, and, prior to the crisis,
Venezuela was importing around <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14360">$2
billion</a> in medicine per year. Rodriguez
estimates that the new US oil sanctions, amounting to
an effective trade embargo, will cost Venezuela an
additional 15 percent in real GDP loss, for a
cumulative contraction of 26 percent in 2019.</p>
<p>Despite his stated <a
href="https://twitter.com/caseysjournal/status/1107258311374749697">concern</a> for
the “politicization” of healthcare in Venezuela,
Nicholas Casey doesn’t think it relevant to mention
his own government’s deliberate effort to destroy the
Venezuelan economy, further devastating the country’s
fragile health sector and <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14360">killing
thousands,</a> if not tens of thousands, of
Venezuelans. Rather, the <strong>New York Times</strong>’
Andes bureau chief mobilizes anonymous sources and
defectors—whose testimony ranges from dubious to
preposterous—to further demonize Venezuela and <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/13194">provide
cover</a> for Washington’s murderous regime change
policy.</p>
<h3>Postscript: Cuban delusions and class contempt</h3>
<p>Beyond crass factual distortions and omissions,
Casey’s reporting is guided by the assumption that the
Barrio Adentro mission is driven by pure political
proselytism. The NYT reporter deliberately ignores
that this program brought medical attention (not just
“medicine” as Casey writes) to many impoverished
communities for the first time. Making door to door
visits is the modus operandi of Cuba’s
prevention-focused healthcare system, which has
consistently delivered enviable health indicators at
low costs.</p>
<p>Cuban doctors, claims Casey, were “instructed to
remind voters that Mr. Chávez had provided the
medicine — and should be thanked with their votes,”
showcasing the typical class contempt of the NYT and
other mainstream outlets for Venezuela’s poor. The
notion that people who had access to healthcare for
the first time needed to be “reminded” that Chávez was
an ally is ridiculous. According to the NYT, poor
people are evidently incapable of organizing
politically in line with their own interests, and
support for any leader other than a
Washington-anointed technocrat can only be explained
by bribery and blackmail.</p>
<p>The implicit neo-Cold War premise undergirding the
NYT’s reporting is that Communist Cuba has “occupied”
Venezuela, which has been repeated ad nauseam by
opposition leaders and US officials. To date, no
substantive evidence has been presented to support
this narrative, leading the likes of Marco Rubio to
engage in the most <a
href="https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1101149289257025537">cartoonish</a>
of contortions to bolster his case.</p>
<p>The NYT’s fantasy portrayals of Cuba-Venezuela
relations speak volumes about US establishment wisdom,
revealing a congenic inability to imagine South-South
relations based on shared interests of solidarity and
anti-imperialist internationalism in lieu of <a
href="https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2019/03/john-bolton-venezuela-monroe-doctrine">Monroe
Doctrine</a>-inspired neocolonial subordination.</p>
<p><em>Note: The final section is an addendum to the
original version published at FAIR.</em></p>
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