Western powers are intensifying their continued attempts at invading Venezuela, ramping up their propaganda campaign against the sovereign nation. Here in the United States — part of the imperialist core — people receive contradicting and mixed messages from mainstream corporate media. Mass delusion is what media elites hope to foster.
Within the Latinx community, there are many who want to be on the right side of history and stand with the Venezuelan people, but struggle to make sense of who to support. This problem may only worsen considering that a major part of the U.S. strategy to invade Venezuela and overthrow President Nicolás Maduro is to spread all sorts of lies within Latinx communities in the U.S. and entire Global North. They’re directing their propaganda at our communities and it’s something we must combat.
Recent events should make us alert about U.S. propaganda targeting Latinx communities. U.S.-based Spanish-language network Univision reported that journalists, including Jorge Ramos, were detained in Venezuela. This reporting was produced amid the U.S. government’s ongoing campaign to force Maduro out. However, you should stop and ask yourself, “Why would Maduro give the U.S. another reason to invade?” We know that the U.S. has already attempted to overthrow the Bolivarian Revolution using fabricated “humanitarian” pretexts on numerous occasions.
Recently, Venezuela’s far-right opposition, with help from the United States, attempted to push U.S. “humanitarian aid” across the Colombian-Venezuelan border. Most U.S. media outlets reported that two trucks of this aid were burned on the bridge and blamed these fires on the Venezuelan government. However, video footage captured Venezuelan right-wing opposition forces throwing bombs at the trucks.
Videos, photos and eyewitness accounts also pointed out that the opposition was the side that instigated the violence and admitted to being hired. The United States attempted to use these right-wing gangs to fabricate a justification for intervention in the country based on faux “humanitarian” claims. In reality, however, the people causing violence and threatening lives are those in the U.S.-backed opposition.
The Venezuelan government has repeatedly said it doesn’t want so-called “humanitarian” aid from the United States. It’s aware that similar interventionist schemes have been used across the Global South. Despite this, the United States essentially attempted to force Venezuela to take the aid. This is a clear infringement of their sovereignty. In fact, Venezuela is accepting real humanitarian aid into the country, but not from the United States. Recently, the Latin American country received 300 tons of humanitarian aid from Russia.
There is resistance to U.S. “humanitarian” aid because it’s not humanitarian at all. The Red Cross and the United Nations refuse to participate in the U.S. regime change operation. They know the “aid” is merely a veil hiding weapons and aid for the right-wing Venezuelan opposition. In fact, a recent video going through the burnt remains of the humanitarian aid trucks showed that the “aid” included kits for right-wing opposition protesters, consisting of masks, nails and wires for barricades. There’s nothing “humanitarian” about that at all.
Reporter Max Blumenthal recently asked Ramos whether he would question U.S. Senator Marco Rubio about a grotesque tweet. He posted a picture of former Libyan Prime Minister Muammar Al Gaddafi being tortured shortly before his death, in what many have described as a threat to Maduro.
Ramos said U.S. Vice President Mike Pence and Rubio support what he did in Venezuela. He basically admitted that he is a puppet for the empire who hope to murder a democratically-elected leader. He portrays himself as a heroic fighter for immigrants taking a stand against Donald Trump, yet he takes side with Pence (a homophobe and xenophobe) as well as Rubio, the model gusano.
At the end of the day, Ramos serves as a propaganda tool for the imperialist war machine determined to bring an end to Maduro and the Bolivarian Revolution. Ramos is just a pawn, but an important piece nonetheless. After all, he has significant influence over the Latinx community in the United States. We must not let Ramos or other pro-imperialist tools win the minds of our communities.
We must not allow ourselves or our communities be taken over by this imperialist trash. Their lies are explicit and brazen only because they believe we are fools who will fall for anything the elites say. This will not be the case for Venezuela. We will expose the lies being used to confuse our communities and demonize the Venezuelan people for standing up to U.S. imperialism.