Venezuela Gets Foreign aid with Maduroâs Consent. Canadian State Media is âComfortableâ Denying it.
By Joe Emersberger
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), which is owned by the Canadian government, ran a Venezuela-related news article on 8 February. It said â[Venezuelan president NicolĂĄs] Maduro says aid not needed in Venezuela, [opposition leader Juan] Guaido wants to allow itâ. The CBC claimed Maduro âhas been firm that this country does not need handouts from abroadâ.
I wrote to the CBC pointing out that Maduro had actually requested and received emergency aid from the UN in November. The CBC was therefore grossly dishonest about the presidentâs position on international aid. Maduro objects to âaidâ from the Trump administration largely because it has threatened Venezuela militarily, openly encouraged the Venezuelan military to perpetrate a coup, and imposed brutal economic sanctions.
Taking direct aim at all Venezuelans
The impact of the sanctions since August 2017 dwarfs offers of aid from anywhere.
About 60% of Venezuelan households have received supplies from the Maduro governmentâs âLocal Supply and Production Committeesâ (CLAP) program. That statistic is from opposition-aligned pollster (DatanĂĄlisis) and was mentioned in passing in an AP article in September. CLAPs distribute food and other basic products directly to households throughout Venezuela.
Trumpâs sanctions take direct aim at Venezuelaâs population by starving the Maduro government of revenues it needs for programs like CLAP. And last month, Trump made the sanctions far worse.
Moreover, Trumpâs special envoy for Venezuela is Elliott Abrams. And heâs a man who played a pivotal role in keeping US material support flowing to death squads in Central America during the 1980s. He was also involved with disguising arms shipments as âhumanitarian aidâ. So thereâs significant cause for suspicion.
The âpastâ is present
CBC editor Paul Hambleton replied to me saying that an update was added to the article. In the text of the article, the CBC added a comment saying âVenezuela has accepted foreign aid in the past, and Maduro has not always been consistent in his statements on the subjectâ. A link to the Reuters report I passed along was included in the âupdateâ.
Firstly, referring to November 2018 â only three months ago â as âthe pastâ is comically evasive. But more importantly, Venezuela is receiving foreign aid now.
ABC News reported on 2 February that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) âcurrently brings in its own medical supplies and emergency trauma care to support six hospitals located across the country.â Venezuelanalysis, meanwhile, has pointed out that both the UN and ICRC (whose work inside Venezuela requires approval from Maduroâs government) have been publicly critical of Trumpâs âaidâ stunt. Venezuelanalysis also noted that the ICRC and UN have â this month â announced plans to expand their operations inside Venezuela.
I replied to Hambleton again and explained why his update was wrong. He told me the CBC article was ânarrowly focusedâ and that he was âcomfortableâ with it. And indeed, Western journalists are nothing if not âcomfortableâ with dishonest reporting about a government that Washington has in its gunsights.
