CNN (2/7/19)
The Trump administration’s now completely overt effort to overthrow Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro had a very successful public relations effort this week, as major Western media outlets uniformly echoed its simplistic, pre-packaged claim that the Venezuelan government was heartlessly withholding foreign aid:
- Tensions Rise as Venezuela Blocks Border Bridge in Standoff Over Aid (CNN, 2/7/19)
- Maduro Blocks Critical Aid Sent to Venezuela (CNN, 2/7/19)
- Aid Arrives at Venezuela Border as US Demands Maduro Let It In (ABC News, 2/7/19)
- Venezuela Crisis: Pompeo Demands Aid Corridor Opened (BBC, 2/7/19)
- The US Says Maduro Is Blocking Aid to Starving People. The Venezuelan Says His People Aren’t Beggars. (Washington Post, 2/8/19)
- Humanitarian Aid Arrives for Venezuela — But Maduro Blocks It (NPR, 2/8/19)
All of the above articles—and scores more like it—repeated the same script: Maduro was blocking aid from the US “out of refusal to relinquish power,” preferring to starve “his own people” rather than feed them. It’s a simple case of good and evil—of a tyrannical, paranoid dictator not letting in aid to feed a starving population.
Except three pieces of key context are missing. Context that, when presented to a neutral observer, would severely undermine the cartoonish narrative being advanced by US media.
- Both the Red Cross and UN warned the US not to engage in this aid PR stunt.
- The bridge in question is a visual metaphor contrived by the Trump administration of little practical relevance.
- The person in charge of US operations in Venezuela has a history of using aid as a cover to deliver weapons to right-wing mercenaries.
(1) Not only has the international aid community not asked for the “aid,” earlier this week, both the International Red Cross and United Nations warned the US to explicitly not engage in these types of PR stunts. As Washington Post contributor Vincent Bevins pointed out, the transparent cynicism of these efforts was preemptively warned about by the groups actually charged with keeping starving people fed:
Red Cross Warns US About Risks of Sending Aid to Venezuela (PBS NewsHour, 2/1/19):
The International Committee of the Red Cross has warned the United States about the risks of delivering humanitarian aid to Venezuela without the approval of security forces loyal to President Nicolas Maduro.
***
UN Warns Against Politicizing Humanitarian Aid in Venezuela (Reuters, 2/6/19):
UNITED NATIONS — The United Nations warned on Wednesday against using aid as a pawn in Venezuela after the United States sent food and medicine to the country’s border and accused President Nicolas Maduro of blocking its delivery with trucks and shipping containers.
Indeed, as Bevins also noted, the Red Cross has long been working with local authorities inside Venezuela to deliver relief, and just last week doubled its budget to do so. We have ample evidence the Maduro government is more than willing to work with international aid when it’s offered in good faith, not when it’s a thinly veiled mechanism to spur civil war and contrive PR victories for those seeking to overthrow the government. It’s not just Maduro—as the Western media are presenting it—who opposes the US aid convoy; it’s the UN and Red Cross. Why do none of the above reports note this rather key piece of information, instead giving the reader the impression it’s only the stance of a sadistic, power-hungry madman?
NPR (2/8/19)
(2) Despite dozens of media outlets giving the impression (and sometimes explicitly saying) that the Venezuelan government shut down an otherwise functioning pathway into the country, the bridge in question hasn’t been open for years.
It’s true the Venezuelan government appears to have placed an oil tanker and cargo containers on the bridge to prevent incursion from the Colombian side, but the other barriers, as writer and software developer Justin Emery noted, have been in place since at least 2016. According to La Opinion (2/5/16), after its initial construction in 2015, the bridge has never been open to traffic. How can Maduro, as the BBC suggested, “reopen” a bridge that was never open?
The reality is BBC and other Western media were just going along with the narrative pushed by Sen. Marco Rubio and Trump Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, not bothering to check if their primary visual narrative was based on a bad faith, context-free PR stunt.
This point is a relatively superficial one, but in a long term PR battle to win over Western liberals for further military escalation, the superficial matters a lot. Rubio and the Trump administration cooked up a gimmicky visual metaphor, and almost every outlet uncritically passed it along, often making factually inaccurate assumptions along the way—assumptions the Trump State Department and CIA coordinating the effort knew very well they would make.
(3) The Venezuelan government has an entirely rational reason to suspect the US would use humanitarian aid as a cover to smuggle in weapons to foment armed conflict: The person running quarterback for Trump on the current Venezuela operation, Elliot Abrams, literally did just that 30 years ago.
From the first two paragraphs (emphasis added) of a 1987 AP/New York Times article on Elliott Abrams, “Abrams Denies Wrongdoing in Shipping Arms to Contras” (8/17/87—h/t Kevin Gosztola):
Assistant Secretary of State Elliott Abrams has defended his role in authorizing the shipment of weapons on a humanitarian aid flight to Nicaraguan rebels, saying the operation was ”strictly by the book.”
Mr. Abrams spoke at a news conference Saturday in response to statements by Robert Duemling, former head of the State Department’s Nicaraguan humanitarian assistance office, who said he had twice ordered planes to shuttle weapons for the Contras on aid planes at Mr. Abrams’ direction in early 1986.
It’s literally the same person. It’s not that Maduro is vaguely paranoid the US, in general, would dust off its 1980s’ Contra-backing Cold War playbook, or some unspecified assumption about a higher-up or two at State. It’s literally the exact same person in charge of the operation who we know—with 100 percent certainty, because he admitted to it—has a history of using aid convoys as a cover to smuggle in arms to right-wing militias.
It’s all playing out right now, in real time. The same actors, the same tricks, the same patently disingenuous concern for the starving poor. And the US media is stripping it of all this essential context, presenting these radical regime-change operators as bleeding heart humanitarians.
The same US media outlets that have expressly fundraised and run ad campaigns on their image as anti-Trump truth-tellers have mysteriously taken at face value everything the Trump White House and its neoconservative allies have said in their campaign to overthrow the government of Venezuela. The self-aggrandizing “factchecking” brigade that emerged to confront the Trump administration is suddenly nonexistent as it rolls out a transparent, cynical PR strategy to delegitimize a Latin American government it’s trying to overthrow.
Are these “mysterious assumptions”
Or malevolent assistance?
How many times does history have to repeat itself before a spade is indelibly stamped a spade?
Adam Johnson should be required reading in every high school and college journalism class. OMG. Simple, factual, counternarrative that makes total sense, explained in calm but persuasive language, which is a feat, given the frustrating failure that the mainstream media represents. Why is it that CNN doesn’t have the resources and/or interest to dig into these stories and Adam has to do it? Kudos to you, Adam Johnson.
Maduro is a monster and must be removed at all costs. I don’t want soldiers on the ground but a well targeted drone strike to take him out would save millions of lives.
You’re a fool, so it’s fitting that you’re commenting anonymously. But it’s pretty funny if you’re being sarcastic or using parody, because you’re saying exactly the same thing that the MSM and US gov’t was saying about:
Saddem Hussein
Bashar al Assad
Salvador Allende
Mohammad Mosaddegh
Muhammar Qaddafi
Manuel Noriega
Fidel Castro
and on and on and on…..meanwhile the US was supporting fascist, evil, monsters in place of ALL of the above when said people suddenly got in the way of Washington’s plans. But maybe a drone can hit your house? That would be greeeeeaat!
adafds:
Specifically what are us accusing Maduro of having done?
Maduro is standing in the way of blatant exploitation of whatever they can get from Venezuela with a puppet regime in place.
Donald “Fire and Fury” Trump is a monster and must be removed at all costs. I don’t want soldiers on the ground but a well targeted drone strike to take him out would save millions of lives.
A NATO Predator Drone hit would stop this American war criminal from threatening; waging economic and covert wars; or bombing more nations from the Middle East to Latin America to Eurasia to Africa!
I am sure that Americans would not mind this attack in the least, especially if there is minimal collateral damage around 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue or Mar-a-Lago.
;-)
And you are an asshole!
Simply stellar reporting, Adam Johnson. The MSM does have the resources to do likewise. Investigative reporting, for them, is “old school”.
Once again the neocons are having their way, Remember: Iran, 1953; Congo, 1961; Pakistan,1971; Chile, 1973, and of course Iran-Contra in the 80’s…..The corporate media always fall in line, like they did for Mr. G.W.Bush in 2003, along with Congress and the Senate of course, who all love a tidy, little war, so good for news sales, and the Military/Industrial Complex. When, if ever, will the American people wise up to the tricks being played in their name? Mr. Oligarch Trump never does anything unless it profits his fellow Billionaires. Make way for our glorious Oil Corporations to rejuvenate that falling Oil production in Venezuela….American’s Fighter Bomber fleet stands ready to assist the suffering masses, even if it means reducing the cities to rubble in the pursuit of glorious freedom. Enough said……
Maduro’s time is over, he’s shifting oil money around for his “exile” can’t you people see that he’s ruining Venezuela? Are you no in favor of freedom and elections that matter? So what if the US is building another oil supplier, better the US than Russia or China….you think you’re being oppressed now just wait. Venezuela can be free, independent and a strong US Ally in the region, or it can turn into a third world sheothole.
The US has set about turning Venezuela into a “sheothole” for at least two decades now. Duh. Some people are just intentionally ignorant and immune to facts I guess. Maybe Karen White never considered that Venezuela may not have been governed perfectly, but that the US has been sabotaging its economy and trying to mount coups since 2002 at least and that, if you had actually read the article above, instead of going straight to comments and sharing your ignorance, you might be aware that the majority of what the US and Western media have said is simply not true. Again, intentionally ignorant is not an excuse for more of the same illegal US meddling, but people like Karen White feel compelled to tell us all what the media (and the article above is pointing out) is already telling us. Maybe you could try educating yourself on the issue assuming you’re not already just trolling for Venezuelan “opposition” as it is. https://monthlyreview.org/2018/06/01/the-politics-of-food-in-venezuela/
Great background article by AJ once again — straight and to the point.
One question? If the bridge was unuseable, why bother blocking it?
k:
Why do you pretend to be confused by the difference between “not opened [officially] to traffic” and “unusable [for traffic]”?
Oh, wait, never mind.
Bridges don’t have to be opened officially, or even entirely complete, to carry goods across them.
Sad flail at conflation and misdirection you posted.
@k:
Because you’ve confused “not [officially] opened bridge” with “unusable bridge”.
Did you glance at the photo?
Of course not.
And your “confusion” isn’t believable.
Adam Johnson,
Thank you for a great article.
You briefly mention starving people in Venezuela. Why haven’t we seen photos of mass starvation? Near all the photos and videos I’ve seen (of both pro & anti-Maduro Venezuelans) is groups of people who look well-fed (to say the least) and certainly not starving.
Does solid evidence exist of mass starvation in Venezuela? And, if so, why isn’t there photographic evidence of this?
I’d love an answer on this from someone I can trust.
Thank you,
Cow
There are more than 3millions Vzlns that left the country for the last 3 years. Anyone who give an opinion about Vzla crisis should have lived there at least for 6 months, as to get a job there and try to live with the minimum wage of $6 to $12 p/month. Visit hospitals, supermarkets, pharmacies and pay for your needs. The Narcoregime has stolen more than $300B. The inflation is about 1000%. There are a wide info in Google by REPUTABLE people and sources about starvation in Vzla. The Colombian border has about 1 million vzlns. They live in tents on a refugee camp and on the streets. Ambassador Angelina Jolie confirmed last year. “It is worse than you think” she said. It seems you would be ok with the horror occurred to the Jews done by Hittler. Mey. An authentic Vzln.
I forgot to mention, the Narcoregime stated that because a economic blocked they can’t supply the main needs to Vzlns but they have the money to get supplies for Cuba. They recently donated TONS of food and supplies to the Cuba regime. Just go to live in Venezuela like any regular Vzln citizen.
Durning the previous administration and it’s grab for a worthless arms agreement with Iran..did I mention how it was “a much ado about nothing…deal?”
The U.S. government lost insight into not only drug trafficking and other criminal activity worldwide, but also into Hezbollah’s illicit conspiracies with top officials in the Iranian, Syrian, Venezuelan and Russian governments—all the way up to presidents Nicolas Maduro, Assad and Putin, according to former task force members and other current and former U.S. officials.”
Durning the previous administration and it’s grab for a worthless arms agreement with Iran..did I mention how it was “a much ado about nothing…deal?”
The U.S. lost insight into not only drug trafficking and other criminal activity worldwide, but also into Hezbollah’s illicit conspiracies with top officials in the Iranian, Syrian, Venezuelan and Russian governments—all the way up to presidents Nicolas Maduro, Assad and Putin, according to former task force members and other current and former U.S. officials.”
So is there a food crisis or isn’t there?
Regarding point #2, about the bridge—The oil tanker and cargo containers aren’t even on the Venezuelan side of the border. They’re in Colombia. Therefore, to display the photo as “evidence” that Maduro is blocking aid is sheer propaganda.
If that bridge hasn’t been open for years, and there are other, regularly used ways in and out of the country then how can you say that they are blocking aid at all? How can you give a reason for them blocking humanitarian aid when most of your story says they aren’t blocking a bridge that was never open? fair.org my ass. Your story makes no sense at all.
Great information… extremely accurate.
All of the “talking heads” that are pushing anti-Russia, anti-conservative, rigged election propaganda are now talking about F-ING REGIME CHANGE in Venezuela as the right thing to do. This is preposterous.
The MSM establishment have spent the last 3 years ruining their reputations and credibility and now… this seems like the last nail in the coffin. The immoral, corrupt, agenda hiding, elitist deep state that conjures this sort of subterfuge really needs exposing. Thanks for the unbiased, truthful reporting.
Maduro is a peace of shit Venezuela people are dying my sister had to flee the country because there is nothing to eat for you to protect this dictator means you are a stupid and ignorant person.
Benjamin… that’s a very Venezuelan name you have there.