🧵Whenever we read a corporate media piece about Venezuela, the 1st instinct is to go crazy at all the disingenuous reporting and biased narratives. Not great for your health. But after we’ve gathered ourselves, it’s useful to break down the propaganda. Bear w/ us here! (thread)
The piece we’re tackling this time around is from the bourgeoisie mouthpiece that is Bloomberg (@business). It comes on the heels of supremely dishonest contenders from the @guardian and @Reuters (links at the end of the thread) bloomberg.com/news/articles/…
Look at this headline! FFS! Venezuela doesn’t have “two presidents,” it has never had “two presidents”! It has one president (Maduro), who won a *presidential election*. And then there was this moron @jguaido who, on US orders, *proclaimed himself* “interim president”
We ought to underline this entire introductory paragraph… First off, notice how for Bloomberg going to Davos and being invited by Trump to the State of the Union somehow legitimizes someone as “president.” Politicians should stop running in elections and secure those invitations
But it gets worse. You’ll forgive us, but we’re not ready to proclaim an opposition politician as “president” because he organized large (not “giant”) opposition rallies in opposition strongholds. Also Maduro didn’t need to “douse” anything, it fizzled out within weeks
Again, there was nothing that could even remotely be described as a “stalemate.” Maduro just kept running his government, paying public sector wages, commanding the armed forces, etc. And this buffoon ran around playing “pretend president” w/ the US and loyal acolytes
The only thing that’s “bizarre” here is the disgusting corporate media coverage. “Fraud” allegations never need any evidence, and Washington declaring a puppet as president, w/ all its acolytes going along, is deemed normal by these loyal stenographers
Guaidó only had “60% support” in DC (or according to unreliable pro-opp pollsters). His “large crowds” never moved an inch out of the middle-class opposition strongholds, while Chavista marches also became a regular feature. Of course the media establishment will not report it
Count on the media to misrepresent Guaidó’s coup failure as “soldiers rebuffed calls to defect.” The cheap Obama lookalike tried an outright military putsch and even contracted mercenaries, only w/ troglodytical skills and underestimating the anti-imperialism of the Vzlan people
Wouldn’t be a description of the Venezuelan economy w/o a terrible misrepresentation of sanctions. These measures were levied on all economic sectors, not just oil. And they weren’t just on “oil exports”, they went from banning imports to secondary sanctions on intl companies
For a better understanding of US sanctions, their deadly consequences, and how the media establishment has gone out of its way to endorse them, watch the following video: venezuelanalysis.com/video/15519
We don’t really care if US surrogates get accurately depicted in the media or not but this is hilarious. The main opposition forces ousted Guaidó b/c he became a disastrous embarrassment, and the corporate media thinks it gets to decide who represents the “pro-democracy movement”
Normalizing mobster antics. Corporate journos don’t see anything wrong w/ the US using frozen, sorely needed funds to blackmail the Venezuelan govt into talking to its puppets. Nor do they see anything wrong w/ threats of more sanctions that kill 1000s of civilians #SanctionsKill
As promised, here’s a thread on that most liberal of rags, the @guardian
Follow Venezuelanalysis to get accurate, on-the-ground news and analysis on all things Venezuela. And as a bonus we will destroy the pro-imperialist propaganda from the media establishment.
The Venezuelan National Assembly approved a reform to the country’s Hydrocarbon Law in its first discussion. A second discussion and final vote are expected soon. This is arguably the country’s most important piece of legislation, so let’s look at what’s at stake 🧵🧵🧵
Some background: Venezuela’s present energy legislation was established under the Hugo Chávez govts. It was first approved in 2001 and later had some amendments. In essence, it reaffirmed the state’s sovereignty over natural resources and established control over the oil industry
Chávez’s reforms mandate that state oil company PDVSA hold majority stakes (in some cases at least 60%) and run oilfield operations. Taxes on oil profits were set 50%, royalties were raised (in some cases from 1%) to 30% across the board
The bar is always high (or low, rather), but every now and then the New York Times delivers an all-time masterpiece of journalistic dishonesty and pliant service to US imperialism. This is a piece about (imaginary ties) between Hezbollah and Venezuela: 🧵 archive.is/FPrMQ
First off, the US kidnapped/abducted Maduro. But US exceptionalism runs so deep that corporate stenographers believe Washington can just "seize" foreign leaders. But the relevant part here is that all we have here are claims by Rubio and US officials
This section is just empty fluff meant to malign Iran and Venezuela. Notice the nonsense of saying the countries are "bound by anti-American ideology" like it's some kind of bad taste in music, as opposed to the result of decades of imperialist attacks
A controversial afternoon (on Twitter) after the orangeman-in-chief lashed out at Colombia after the Petro government refused to accept repatriation flights with shackled migrants in military airplanes. Trump threatened tariffs and sanctions, Petro replied defiantly
Trump's disgusting (even by his standards) xenophobic and imperialist antics barely a week into his term have drawn fierce rebukes across the hemisphere. Honduran President Xiomara Castro called for an extraordinary summit in a few days
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro also voice his support, telling his Colombian counterpart he can count on the "strength and experience" of the Venezuelan people and calling for further regional unity
🧵When it comes to reporting about Venezuela, there is no corporate outlet even remotely close to the level of dishonesty of the New York Times. Seriously, it's one piece of misrepresented bullsh*t after another. Follow this thread as we break it down
This is the piece:
The article is not to be taken seriously b/c it starts from a blatant lie. US "prodding" has nothing to do with Venezuela holding elections. It is dictated by the Constitution that they be held this year and they were never in doubt shorturl.at/LFusR
Anyone not high on Western exceptionalism would actually be ashamed of their government meddling in other countries' affairs. But alas, this is the NYT.
In corporate media spiel, "restoring democracy" just means a US puppet being back in the presidential palace
🧵🧵The border dispute between Venezuela and Guyana has flared up recently, leading to a war of words, increased military deployment and increasing signs of US intervention. We have prepared an infographic to explain the history and context of the controversy (thread)
The Essequibo Strip is a sparsely populated, 160,000 square km region spanning to the west of the Essequibo River. It has been the subject of centuries of dispute which, sadly, have never taken into account the indigenous population
Instead, it has always been pretty much about resources. Gold mining is what drove British expansion westward (more on this below), and the recent discoveries of massive oil deposits led to Venezuela and Guyana raising tensions too
About time... Spain's @el_pais reports that the $3 billion in frozen Vzlan assets will soon be released. This was agreed to between the Venezuelan govt and opposition last November! But this thread is to point out the dishonest b.s. from the Spanish establishment's mouthpiece 🧵
This is the article in question:
It essentially relies on anonymous sources who say that the funds will soon be released. El País then covers this fairly straightforward report in a cloak of lies and misconceptionsenglish.elpais.com/international/…
So it begins. How dare Maduro want to access Venezuelan funds? Then it's incredibly disingenuous and racist to claim the govt wants to fix schools/hospitals to "polish its image." If a western govt builds a hospital, it's laudable. If Vzla does it it's to fool voters. GTFOH