Just a little more information on the web of US lead Western media lies and misinformation being woven around Venezuela.
March 30, 2019 "Information Clearing House" - Venezuela is America's
current target for mass destabilization in the hope of installing a
puppet government.
America has for years been waging an
economic war against Venezuela, including debilitating sanctions which
have dramatically affected the state's ability to purchase medicines,
and even mundane replacement parts needed in buses, ambulances, etc.
Alongside the economic war there has been a steady propaganda war, but
in recent months, the propaganda has escalated dramatically, from
corporate media to US political figures.
Venezuela is
described as “the country pilots are refusing to fly to,” as per a March
18, 2019, AP article on American Airlines cancelling all flights to
Venezuela, containing scary phrases like “safety concerns” and “civil
unrest.”
On March 9, American cancelled my Miami-Caracas
flight on the basis that there wasn't enough electricity to land at
Caracas airport. Strangely enough, the Copa flight I took the following
day after an overnight in Panama had no problem landing, nor did Copa
flights on the day of my own cancelled flight, according to Copa staff.
The cancellation of flights to Venezuela then lends legitimacy to the
shrill tweets of Marco Rubio, Mike Pence, John Bolton, and the
previously unknown non-president, Juan Guaido.
I've been
in various areas of Caracas since March 10, and I've seen none of this
“civil unrest” that corporate media are talking about. I've walked
around Caracas, usually on my own, and haven't experienced the worry for
my safety corporate media is telling Westerners they should suddenly
feel more than normal in Venezuela.
In fact, I see
little difference from the Venezuela I knew in 2010 when I spent half a
year here, except the hyperinflation is absurdly worse and in my absence
I missed the years of extreme right-wing opposition supporters street
violence – a benign term for the guarimbas which saw opposition
supporters burning people alive, among other violence against people and
security.
So it strikes me that the decision of
American Airlines to stop flying to Venezuela is not about safety and
security issues, but is political, in line with increasingly hollow
rhetoric about a humanitarian crisis that does not exist, even according
to former UN Special Rapporteur, Alfred de Zayas.
I
asked Paul Dobson, a journalist who has lived in Venezuela the last 14
years, if anything like this had happened before. Turns out it has, also
at a very timely moment.
“At the time of the National
Constituent Assembly elections, July 30, 2017, the major airlines –
including Air France, United, American, pretty much all of the European
airlines – suspended their flights one day before the elections, citing
“security reasons.” Most of the services were reopened about four days
after the elections, some of them two weeks after the elections.”
So were there 'security concerns? I asked Paul.
“This was towards the end of street violence (guarimbas) that had been
going on for six months in the country. Why didn't they suspend their
activity six months before, two months before? They did it the day
before the elections, clearly trying to influence votes and the way that
people see their country internationally. There were no extra security
concerns that day than any day over the last 6 months. So, there was
really no justification for it. And it caused massive problems on the
ground, around elections.”
I spent most of afternoon in
Petare, one of poorest areas of Caracas & the most sprawling
series of barrios in Latin America. Ppl I met there spoke about
Imperialist & economic war against them, & how they will
continue defending their country. Night & day fr these howling
idiots pic.twitter.com/hQxutY6vhR
— Eva Bartlett (@EvaKBartlett) March 27, 2019
