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   carl marks (tillshadeisgone@blackqueer.life)'s status on Friday, 02-Aug-2024 12:58:05 JST carl marks

   Been seeing a lot of buzz on the fediverse about Venezuela recently. First thing that came to mind was, "Maduro? Didn't the US government try to coup Maduro a few years ago?"

   Turns out, they did, and have been interfering in elections in Venezuela for years in an attempt to overthrow the socialists in power and install their own right wing US friendly politician who would give US corporations access to (you guessed it) their oil! Link below from an independent election observer about their take on the election:

   https://nlginternational.org/2024/07/national-lawyers-guild-report-election-monitoring-delegation-to-the-bolivarian-republic-of-venezuela/

   Now, with that in mind, I'm having trouble squaring that away with the narrative going around in US corporate media which is universally stating that Maduro rigged the election and is a dictator.

   Interestingly, none of these articles make any mention of the fact that the opposition candidate (Gonzalez) is a far right politician, is US-backed, is a Zionist, and has a huge fan in Elon Musk. They also don't mention whatsoever the context of the history of US coup attempts OR the fact that the reason Venezuela did not invite the EU to oversee the election was because of the sanctions the EU has been imposing on Venezuela in concert with the US.

   To put it mildly, I find that very suspicious. I do think there is merit in the suggestion that the vote tallies be published, as has been the case previously. I also haven't been able to find any comment from the African Union, who also sent election observers.

   I'm still doing research and forming my opinion about what's going on, but I am concerned at how swiftly folks on this platform are circulating info that smells a lot like State Dept propaganda.

   • Embed this notice
     carl marks (tillshadeisgone@blackqueer.life)'s status on Saturday, 03-Aug-2024 02:19:46 JST carl marks

     in reply to

     • The Wolf of Wallsocket Street dir. Martin Underscorcese

     @larsfrommars tbh that reads like propaganda to me because it provides a lot of information but deliberately omits relevant context.

     For example, it says that the opposition candidate Maria Corina Machado was banned from being nominated, but implies that it was just Maduro forcing her out because he's a dictator. It completely leaves out the fact that she has been involved in multiple US-backed coup attempts (both of Maduro's predecessor and him), orchestrating extremely violent protests that targeted students and union leaders, and has many times openly called for foreign invasion of Venezuela to oust Maduro, including a request for military intervention from Netanyahu.

     The Venezuelan Supreme Court banned her from political nomination years ago because she spoke to the Organization of American States to request intervention in Venezuela as a representative of Panama, violating their laws about politicians acting as instruments of foreign countries.

     It's just one example, but I see a lot of similar patterns in articles from the New York Times, CNN, Washington Post, Reuters, AP... And they all follow the same model where they repeat lies or dramatically misrepresented information that makes Maduro's regime look bad while leaving out the context that makes it obvious how much the US wants the socialists out and the far right in.

     Another example is they'll wax poetic about the terrible economic conditions in the country and how so many leave Venezuela as a result but don't mention US and EU sanctions that have left the people starving. It's very similar to the embargo on Cuba. The US acts the same way because of a socialist revolution in the past that the US is committed to undermining.

     I'm by no means an expert but the information I've been able to find is very telling and very difficult to come by due to the narratives being pushed by corporate media. Just my two cents.

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     The Wolf of Wallsocket Street dir. Martin Underscorcese (larsfrommars@toot.garden)'s status on Saturday, 03-Aug-2024 02:19:47 JST The Wolf of Wallsocket Street dir. Martin Underscorcese

     in reply to

     @tillshadeisgone i don't have much personal context for venezuelan politics but i found this helpful https://venezuelanvoices.org/2024/07/28/presidential-elections-in-venezuela-what-to-expect/