New York Times’ New Onslaught Against Venezuela—Propaganda or Journalism?
On Monday, April 26, US newspaper and propaganda outlet The New York Times (NYT) published a “report” penned by Anatoly Kurmanaev, suggesting that Venezuela is a “territory in anarchy” where terrorist groups thrive.
Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza denounced this alleged report as part of a campaign aimed at portraying Venezuela as a land in chaos, where there is no authority “in large areas of the country.”
The top Venezuelan diplomat pointed to the piece as “another smear campaign against Venezuela.” He confirmed that the Bolivarian National Armed Force (FANB) are fighting Colombian narco-terrorist groups, but that the US media paints a picture in which armed groups such as the ELN [National Liberation Army guerrillas from Colombia] allegedly “operate in more than half of Venezuelan territory.”
Ante la imposibilidad de derrocar al Gobierno Bolivariano, los agresores contra #Venezuela coordinan sus acciones mediáticas. Artículos del @Nytimes y otros medios, así como un infame informe de @hrw, buscan nuevamente aumentar la presión intervencionista. ¡Fracasarán!
— Jorge Arreaza M (@jaarreaza) April 26, 2021
Arreaza accuses The New York Times of applying “the same formulas with which they justified the invasions of Iraq and Libya, and the recent coup in Bolivia.”
No man’s land?
The work published by the North American newspaper recounts the scene of a neglected region in the Venezuelan Guajira peninsula where Wayúu indigenous people are victimized and displaced by the ELN.
They reinforce the narrative that the presence of armed groups is due to the absence of Venezuelan authorities, minimizing the case of Colombia, a country that suffers from the problem of lack of security, not only in border areas, but in several regions.
A political expert told the Orinoco Tribune that “it is incredible that people still read the NYT and think they speak the truth; even our progressive friends in the US are blinded by their propaganda work.”
“The United Stated has seven military bases in Colombia, allegedly to fight drug trafficking,” added the analyst. “The US provides Colombian authorities with millions of dollars of assistance, but they—in the NYT, which for many is simply a Pentagon mouthpiece—dare to launch this smear campaign against Venezuela, that is deploying its military forces on the border to expel Colombian narco-terrorist groups. These groups originate in Colombia, and hope to expand the criminal networks that are their modus operandi, into Venezuela. The media does this just to reinforce their narrative depicting Venezuela as a failed state, when in reality Colombia is in way worse shape than Venezuela.”
In this story, we have tried to grapple with the paradox of today's Venezuela: as Maduro consolidates political power, his effective control of the national territory is shrinking. https://t.co/yxUizfobji
— Anatoly Kurmanaev (@AKurmanaev) April 26, 2021
The New York Times describes ELN control of fuel smuggling and drug trafficking routes in the area, leaving the reader to imagine a country that is a hub for the narcotics industry, without mentioning that the base of operations of these criminal activities is in Colombia, where they are “protected” by the US Army.
For Venezuela’s foreign affairs minister, the article revealed a failure of the operations to overthrow the government of President Nicolás Maduro. As a result, they are now resorting to “media warfare.”
Arreaza described that this purported journalistic report as the ammunition in a “hybrid war against Venezuela in order to generate chaos and violence,” while Colombia remains the major drug exporter, and the US and Europe the main drug consumers, in the world.
Featured image: A new NYT piece intensified the smear campaign against Venezuela put the blame on the current military incidents in Apure state on Venezuela that is the one fighting and putting the life of its military people at risk to spell Colombian narco terrorist organizations coming from a country where the US has seven military bases allegedly to fight drug trafficking. Even the images they use are taken using filters and shadows to reinforce the narrative of a failed state. Photo courtesy of the pamphlet NYT.
(RedRadioVE) by Carlos Arellán, with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/SL
