Venezuela: Crisis shows Caracas will never please hostile Western media
Venezuela: Crisis shows Caracas will never please hostile Western media
Wednesday 16th
posted by Morning Star in Features
by James Tweedie
THE recent border dispute between Venezuela and Colombia, accompanied by a crackdown on Colombian criminal gangs by Caracas, has been used as a yet another stick to beat the socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro.
On August 17 Maduro announced the closure of the border with Colombia in south-western Tachira sate for 72 hours, in response to an ambush by a paramilitary criminal gang on a platoon of troops searching the area for smugglers, wounding three of them.
The police and army launched a “people’s liberation operation” (OLP), a combined mass sweep to root out gangs. Maduro extended the closure and declared a state of emergency in Tachira as hundreds of suspects were rounded up — mainly undocumented Colombian immigrants.
Former Colombian president Alvaro Uribe called Maduro a “dictator” a few days later. As Uribe spoke at a demonstration outside the Venezuelan consulate, a supporter held up a placard behind him declaring Maduro a xenophobe, a fascist and a terrorist. Two days later Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos accused Venezuela of “ethnic cleansing.” The Western media lapped it up.
More:
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/a-5c25-Venezuela-Crisis-shows-Caracas-will-never-please-hostile-Western-media#.Vfix9uSFMvs