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href="https://fair.org/home/whitewashing-neoliberal-repression-in-chile-and-ecuador/">https://fair.org/home/whitewashing-neoliberal-repression-in-chile-and-ecuador/</a></font>
<h1 class="reader-title">Whitewashing Neoliberal Repression in
Chile and Ecuador</h1>
<div class="credits reader-credits">Lucas Koerner - October 23,
2019<br>
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<p>Throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, people are
rising up against right-wing, US-backed governments and
their neoliberal austerity policies.</p>
<p>Currently in Chile, the government of billionaire
Sebastian Piñera has deployed the army to crush
nationwide demonstrations against inequality sparked by
a subway fare hike.</p>
<p>In Ecuador, indigenous peoples, workers and students
recently brought the country to a standstill during 11
days of protests against the gutting of fuel subsidies
by President Lenín Moreno as part of an <a
href="http://cepr.net/images/stories/reports/ecuador-imf-2019.pdf">IMF
austerity package</a>.</p>
<p>One might expect these popular rebellions to receive
unreservedly sympathetic coverage from international
media that claim to be on the side of democracy and the
common people. On the contrary, corporate journalists
frequently describe these uprisings as dangerous
alterations of “law and order,” laden with “violence,”
“chaos” and “unrest.”</p>
<p>This portrait contrasts remarkably with coverage of
anti-government protests in Venezuela, where generally
the only violence highlighted is that allegedly
perpetrated by the state. In the eyes of Western elite
opinion, Venezuela’s middle-class opposition have long
been leaders of a legitimate popular protest against an
authoritarian, anti-American regime. Poor people
rebelling against repressive US client states are
considered an unacceptable deviation from this script.</p>
<h3>‘<b>Crackdown’ in Venezuela</b></h3>
<p>Corporate journalists have never been able to contain
their enthusiasm for the right-wing Venezuelan
opposition’s repeated coup attempts, which are regularly
cast as a “pro-democracy” movement (<b>FAIR.org</b>, <a
href="https://fair.org/home/distorting-democracy-in-venezuela-coverage/">5/10/19</a>).</p>
<p>In 2017, Venezuela’s opposition led four months of
violent, insurrectionary protests demanding early
presidential elections, resulting in <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/13081">over
125 dead</a>, including protesters, government
supporters and bystanders. It was the opposition’s fifth
major effort to oust the government by force since 2002.</p>
<p>Despite the demonstrations featuring attacks on
journalists, lynchings and assassinations of government
supporters, they were depicted as a “uprising” against
“authoritarianism” (<b>New York Times</b>, <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/22/world/americas/venezuela-protests-maduro.html">6/22/17</a>),
a “rebellion” in the face of “the government’s
crackdown” (<b>Bloomberg</b>, <a
href="https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2017-venezuela-protests/">5/18/17</a>)
and a David-like movement of “young firebrands” facing
down a sinister regime (<b>Guardian</b>, <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/may/25/venezuela-protests-riots-frontline-caracas-nicolas-maduro">5/25/17</a>).
Reporters frequently attributed the mounting death toll
to state security forces (<b>France 24</b>, <a
href="https://www.france24.com/en/20170721-venezuela-death-toll-protests-100-nicolas-maduro-opposition">7/21/17</a><b>;
Newsweek,</b> <a
href="https://www.newsweek.com/venezuela-death-toll-climbs-73-least-after-another-teenager-shot-dead-627428">6/20/17</a>;
<b>Washington Post</b>, <a
href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/the_americas/how-a-new-kind-of-protest-movement-has-risen-in-venezuela/2017/06/03/77e3a464-4487-11e7-8de1-cec59a9bf4b1_story.html">6/3/17)</a>,
while generally ignoring opposition political violence
reported to be responsible for <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/13081">over
30 deaths</a>.</p>
<p>The pattern was repeated in January, when deadly
clashes broke out across the country in the days before
and after opposition leader Juan Guaidó declared himself
“interim president” with the US’s encouragement.
Corporate outlets described the events as a “violent
crackdown” (<b>Independent</b>, <a
href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/venezuela-crisis-protests-death-toll-maduro-trump-juan-guaido-president-crackdown-a8743941.html">1/24/19</a>),
with security forces “spreading terror…to target
critics” (<b>Reuters</b>, <a
href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-police-idUSKCN1PS07M">2/3/19</a>)
and “soldiers and paramilitary gunmen…hunting opposition
activists” (<b>Miami Herald</b>,<a
href="https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/venezuela/article225158290.html">
1/27/19</a>). International journalists based their
accounts largely on pro-opposition sources, suppressing
inconvenient details that complicated their Manichean
narrative, such as the <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/14256">fact</a>
that some 38% of protests were violent and at least 28%
featured armed confrontations with authorities.</p>
<p>Unlike in Chile and Ecuador, corporate outlets have
consistently vilified Venezuelan President Nicolás
Maduro—who won 6.2 million votes, or 31% of the
electorate last year—as an “authoritarian” (<b>FAIR.org</b>,
<a
href="https://fair.org/home/zero-percent-of-elite-commentators-oppose-regime-change-in-venezuela/">4/11/19</a>,
<a
href="https://fair.org/home/npr-shreds-ethics-handbook-to-normalize-regime-change-in-venezuela/">8/5/19</a>)
or a “dictator” (<b>FAIR.org</b>, <a
href="https://fair.org/home/dictator-media-code-for-government-we-dont-like/">4/11/19</a>),
justifying the latest coup effort.</p>
<h3><b>Chile ‘Riots’ </b></h3>
<p>In recent days, Chileans have taken to the streets in
mass demonstrations against the Piñera administration,
following a further increase in Santiago’s exorbitant
subway fare.</p>
<p>Beginning as high school student–led protests, the
movement has escalated into a full-scale rebellion
against the <a
href="https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/10/chile-protests-pinera-repression">savagely
unequal neoliberal order</a>, prompting the government
to militarize the streets and impose a curfew for the
first time since the Western-backed Pinochet
dictatorship (1973–90).</p>
<p>Despite the largest protests since the return of
democracy, the international corporate media have
largely referred to them in pejorative terms such as
“riots” (<b>CNN</b>, <a
href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/19/americas/chile-protests-intl/index.html">10/19/19</a>;
<b>CNBC</b>, <a
href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/latino/chile-deadly-weekend-arson-riots-armed-forces-discontent-rises-n1069371">10/21/19</a>),
“violent unrest” (<b>New York Times</b>, <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/19/world/americas/chile-protests-emergency.html">10/19/19</a>)
and “chaos” (<b>NPR</b>, <a
href="https://www.npr.org/2019/10/19/771545299/chiles-capital-engulfed-in-chaos-as-metro-protests-intensify">10/19/19</a>;
<b>Vice</b>, <a
href="https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/3kx4mn/burned-bodies-and-chaos-on-the-streets-heres-whats-happening-with-the-riots-in-chile">10/21/19</a>),
providing a moral casus belli for war against the
people.</p>
<p>Revealingly, no major outlets have described the
government’s brutal repression as a “crackdown,” nor
called into question the legitimacy of Piñera, who was
elected in 2017 with the backing of 26% of registered
voters.</p>
<p>It’s true that international journalists are beginning
to reference allegations of human rights violations
reported by Chile’s <a
href="https://twitter.com/inddhh">National Human
Rights Institute</a>, including, as of October 23, 173
people shot and 18 dead, among them at least <a
href="https://www.indh.cl/indh-anuncia-querellas-por-cinco-personas-fallecidas-en-estado-de-emergencia/">five</a>
presumably at the hands of authorities.</p>
<p>However, the victims of state violence in Chile have
not received anywhere near the amount of attention
international outlets have dedicated to protester deaths
in Venezuela, where the dead have been movingly profiled
(<b>New York Times</b>, <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/10/world/americas/venezuela-protests-musicians-nicolas-maduro.html">6/10/17</a>;
<b>BBC</b>, <a
href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-39885943">5/14/17</a>)—provided
they were not <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/13270">lynched
by the opposition</a>.</p>
<p>In two emblematic cases, Manuel Rebolledo, 23, died on
October 21 after being <a
href="https://www.eldesconcierto.cl/2019/10/23/militar-encargado-de-concepcion-reintegra-y-respalda-a-infante-de-la-armada-que-asesino-a-persona-en-talcahuano/">run
over</a> by a navy vehicle near Concepción, while
Ecuadorian national Romario Veloz, 26, was shot dead the
day before at a protest in La Serena. Neither men have
been mentioned by name in Western press reports.</p>
<p>It would appear that the only worthy victims, in the
eyes of US corporate journalists, are those that have
propaganda value from the standpoint of Western foreign
policy interests. Reporters spontaneously empathize with
neoliberal technocrats like Piñera, even as they
occasionally chide them for “excesses.”</p>
<p>“Mr. Piñera said that he is mindful of the broader
grievances that fueled the unrest… But he seemed to have
difficulty coming to grips with the real source of the
population’s frustrations,” the <b>New York Times </b>(<a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/21/world/americas/why-chile-protests.html">10/21/19</a>)
sympathetically observed, before going on to note that
the president has declared “war” against his own people.</p>
<p>The paper of record suggested that Chileans might find
the imposition of martial law “jarring,” given that “the
military had killed and tortured thousands of people
just decades ago in the name of restoring order.” But
despite the article being headlined “What You Need to
Know About the Unrest in Chile,” the <b>Times </b>did
not find it relevant to mention anywhere that state
security forces were currently maiming and killing
demonstrators in the streets, and allegedly<a
href="https://www.eldesconcierto.cl/2019/10/23/las-torturas-que-acusan-los-detenidos-en-estado-de-emergencia-amenazas-de-agresion-sexual-hacer-sentadillas-desnudos-y-brutales-golpizas/">
torturing detainees</a>.</p>
<p>The dominant narrative fed to the public is that
Piñera’s government has been “inept” in responding to
the protests (<b>Economist</b>, <a
href="https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2019/10/20/riots-after-a-fare-increase-damage-chiles-image-of-stability">10/20/19</a>;
<b>Reuters</b>, <a
href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-chile-protests/chile-scrambles-to-clean-up-mess-after-weekend-of-chaos-violent-protests-idUSKBN1X01CL">10/21/19</a>;
<b>New York Times</b>, <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/21/world/americas/why-chile-protests.html">10/21/19</a>),
but never criminal or cruel.</p>
<p>No Western newspapers have published scathing op-eds
calling Piñera a “dictator” and demanding their
government take action to “restore democracy,” as they
have done regularly in the case of Venezuela (<b>FAIR.org</b>,<a
href="https://fair.org/home/dictator-media-code-for-government-we-dont-like/">
4/11/19</a>). Rather, they counsel the billionaire
president to address “inequality,” barring any reference
to what is increasingly coming to resemble <a
href="https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/chile-protests-army-israel-palestine-santiago-pinera-pinochet-mapuche-a9167021.html">state
terror</a> (<b>New York Times</b>, <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/22/opinion/chile-protests.html">10/22/19</a>;
<b>Guardian</b>, <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/oct/23/chile-protest-war-pinera-inequality">10/23/19</a>;
<b>Bloomberg</b>, <a
href="https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2019-10-23/chile-s-protests-aren-t-like-other-latin-american-protests">10/23/19</a>).</p>
<p>Corporate journalists continue to whitewash Piñera,
describing him as “center-right” (<b>Guardian</b>, <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/21/chile-braces-after-worst-unrest-in-three-decades-claims-11-lives">10/21/19</a>;
<b>CNBC</b>, <a
href="https://www.cnbc.com/2019/10/19/chile-president-pinera-declares-emergency-as-capital-is-rocked-by-riots.html">10/19/19</a>;
<b>Reuters</b>, <a
href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-chile-protests/after-chile-riots-thousands-rally-to-protest-at-pinera-government-idUSKBN1X01CL">10/21/19</a>)
and concealing his personal <a
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VBGwQX34oeo">ties</a>
to murderous dictator Augusto Pinochet and those of his
<a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/23/chile-president-elect-sebastian-pinera-andres-chadwick">top
cabinet members</a>.</p>
<h3><b>Ecuador ‘Violence’ </b></h3>
<p>Corporate journalists have shown only marginally more
sympathy to Ecuador’s recent indigenous-led uprising
against IMF-imposed austerity measures, frequently
described in headlines as “violent protests” (<b>CNN</b>,
<a
href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/08/americas/ecuador-government-protests-scli-intl/index.html">10/8/19</a>;
<b>Guardian</b>, <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/08/ecuador-moves-government-out-of-capital-as-violent-protests-rage">10/8/19</a>;
<b>USA Today</b>, <a
href="https://www.usatoday.com/picture-gallery/news/world/2019/10/09/violent-protests-ecuador-causes-government-flee-quito/3914505002/">10/9/19</a>;
<b>Financial Times</b>, <a
href="https://www.ft.com/content/c919a6ac-e9e0-11e9-a240-3b065ef5fc55">10/8/19</a>).</p>
<p>President Moreno has yet to be labeled by the
international media as “authoritarian,” despite ordering
soldiers to repress demonstrators in the streets,
imposing a curfew, suspending basic civil liberties and
arresting rival politicians.</p>
<p>Since betraying his campaign promise to continue his
predecessor Rafael Correa’s left-wing policies. and
embracing the oligarchy he ran against, Moreno has
become the darling of Western elite opinion (<b>FAIR.org</b>,
<a
href="https://fair.org/home/western-media-hail-ecuadors-cynical-president-moreno/">2/4/18</a>).</p>
<p>Like in Chile, corporate outlets have whitewashed
Moreno’s vicious <a
href="https://www.thenation.com/article/ecuador-protests-imf/">crackdown</a>,
which left seven dead, around a thousand arrested and a
similar figure wounded. However, corporate outlets have
been even more nefarious in obfuscating the origins of
the crisis in Ecuador.</p>
<p>As Joe Emersberger has recently exposed for FAIR (<a
href="https://fair.org/home/ecuadors-austerity-measures-repression-based-on-lies-ap-happily-spread/">10/23/19</a>),
Western journalists’ favorite lie is that Moreno
“inherited a debt crisis that ballooned as his
predecessor and one-time mentor, former President Rafael
Correa, <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/24/world/americas/ecuador-china-dam.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FEcuador&module=inline">took
out loans for a major dam</a>, highways, schools,
clinics and other projects” (<b>New York Times</b>, <a
href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/08/world/americas/ecuador-protests-president.html">10/8/19</a>).
In fact, the country’s debt-to-GDP level remains low,
though it has increased slightly under Moreno, due not
to public works but to his pro-elite policies.</p>
<p>Corporate outlets have for the most part admitted that
Moreno has presented no evidence to back his ludicrous
claims of Correa and Maduro supporters orchestrating the
protests; nonetheless, they have, with few exceptions (<b>DW</b>,
<a
href="https://www.dw.com/en/ecuador-arrests-prefect-after-moreno-cancels-austerity-plan/a-50829590">10/14/19</a>;
<b>Reuters</b>, <a
href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-ecuador-protests-mexico/mexico-offers-protection-to-ecuador-opposition-lawmaker-as-protests-persist-idUSKBN1WS00R">10/12/19</a>),
shamefully ignored Moreno’s draconian persecution of
Correaist politicians (including elected
representatives), which he justifies on the basis of the
very same conspiracy theory. This coverage contrasts
sharply with the red carpet treatment regularly provided
to Venezuela’s US-friendly opposition politicians,
regardless of how many coups they perpetrate (<b>Reuters</b>,
<a
href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-venezuela-politics-lopez/return-of-firebrand-opposition-leader-lopez-energizes-venezuelan-protests-idUSKCN1S7324">4/30/19</a>;
<b>LA Times</b>, <a
href="https://www.latimes.com/la-fg-leopoldo-lopez-venezuela-20190430-story.html">4/30/19</a>;
<b>Guardian</b>, <a
href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/06/this-man-plotted-guaidos-rise-and-still-dreams-of-leading-venezuela">2/6/19</a>).</p>
<h3><b>Western Media Gendarmerie </b></h3>
<p>It is not coincidental that Western journalists stand
aghast at the violence of the excluded and exploited in
Chile and Ecuador, while rationalizing that spearheaded
by Washington-backed opposition elites in Venezuela.</p>
<p>This bias has nothing to do with any actual amount of
looting or arson. Rather, it is the eruption of the
racialized poor into polite bourgeois society’s
technocratic body politic that is viscerally violent to
local neocolonial elites and their Western
professional-class backers.</p>
<p>Ecuador’s protests are the latest in a long line of
anti-neoliberal uprisings, which brought down three
presidents between 1997 and 2005.</p>
<p>The rebellion exploding in Chile is the largest in over
a generation, evidencing the terminal legitimacy crisis
of the “low-intensity democracy” crafted by Pinochet to
maintain the neoliberal model imposed at gunpoint. The
Chilean uprising has genuinely terrified elites,
leading the right-wing president to wage war on his own
people. At stake is not just the stability of a key
Western ally, but more crucially, neoliberalism’s
ideological narrative that has upheld Chile as a “<a
href="https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/democraciaabierta/myths-about-pinochets-chile-persist-brazil-today/">success
story</a>.”</p>
<p>Corporate journalists will most likely continue to
muffle themselves vis-a-vis repressive US client states,
in the same way that they systematically conceal the
impact of Washington’s sanctions on Venezuela (<b>FAIR.org</b>,
<a
href="https://fair.org/home/so-who-is-reporting-that-trump-sanctions-have-killed-thousands-of-venezuelans/">6/26/19</a>),
which are estimated to have already <a
href="https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/14446">killed
40,000 Venezuelans</a> since 2017.</p>
<p>If the first casualty of war is truth, its
self-anointed purveyors in the international media have
much blood on their hands indeed.</p>
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