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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Game Changed in Venezuela Last Night – and the International Media Is Asleep At the Switch
http://caracaschronicles.com/2014/02/20/the-game-changed/The Game Changed in Venezuela Last Night and the International Media Is Asleep At the Switch
Francisco Toro
Dear International Editor:
Listen and understand. The game changed in Venezuela last night. What had been a slow-motion unravelling that had stretched out over many years went kinetic all of a sudden.
What we have this morning is no longer the Venezuela story you thought you understood.
Throughout last night, panicked people told their stories of state-sponsored paramilitaries on motorcycles roaming middle class neighborhoods, shooting at people and storming into apartment buildings, shooting at anyone who seemed like he might be protesting. People continue to be arrested merely for protesting, and a long established local Human Rights NGO makes an urgent plea for an investigation into widespread reports of torture of detainees. There are now dozens of serious human right abuses: National Guardsmen shooting tear gas canisters directly into residential buildings. We have videos of soldiers shooting civilians on the street. And thats just what came out in real time, over Twitter and YouTube, before any real investigation is carried out. Online media is next, a city of 645,000 inhabitants has been taken off the internet amid mounting repression, and this blog itself has been the object of a Facebook block campaign.
What we saw were not street clashes, what we saw is a state-hatched offensive to suppress and terrorize its opponents.
After the major crackdown on the streets of major (and minor) Venezuelan cities last night, I expected some kind of response in the major international news outlets this morning. I understand that with an even bigger and more photogenic freakout ongoing in an even more strategically important country, we werent going to be front-page-above-the-fold, but Im staggered this morning to wake up, scan the press and find
Nothing.
As of 11 a.m. this morning, the New York Times World Section has nothing.
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The Game Changed in Venezuela Last Night – and the International Media Is Asleep At the Switch (Original Post)
ChicagoRonin
Feb 2014
OP
So are you asking DUers to support the Venezuelan equivalent of the Tea Party?
TroglodyteScholar
Feb 2014
#1
TroglodyteScholar
(5,477 posts)1. So are you asking DUers to support the Venezuelan equivalent of the Tea Party?
I don't know if that's likely, even under these circumstances.
snappyturtle
(14,656 posts)2. Thanks for the update! Look, we're not going to hear anything
until the Venezuelan citizens make the situation go viral to the point
TPTB and the M$M can't ignore it. Afterall that's how we learn of most
important matters these days. The 'stealth' journalists swoop in AFTER
the news is broken to the world. We should remember this. imho
hrmjustin
(71,265 posts)3. My prayers and best wishes go to the people of Venezuela.