Venezuela Coverage Takes Us Back to Golden Age of Lying About Latin America

[Judi Lynn]

FEBRUARY 22, 2019

MARK COOK



Venezuelan pharmacy at a time when Time (5/19/16) was telling readers, “Basic medicines
like aspirin are nowhere to be found” in Venezuela.


I was sitting in my apartment in Caracas, Venezuela, reading the online edition of Time magazine (5/19/16), which carried a report that there was not even something as basic as aspirin to be found anywhere in Venezuela: “Basic medicines like aspirin are nowhere to be found.”

I walked out of the apartment to the nearest pharmacy, four blocks away, where I found plenty of aspirin, as well as acetaminophen (generic Tylenol) and ibuprofen (generic Advil), in a well-stocked pharmacy with a knowledgeable professional staff that would be the envy of any US drugstore.

A few days after the Time story, CNBC (6/22/16) carried a claim that there was no acetaminophen to be found anywhere, either: “Basic things like Tylenol aren’t even available.” That must have taken the Pfizer Corporation by surprise, since it was their Venezuelan subsidiary, Pfizer Venezuela SA, which produced the acetaminophen I purchased. (Neither Time writer Ian Bremer nor CNBC commentator Richard Washington was in Venezuela, and there was no evidence offered that either of them had ever been there.)

I purchased all three products, plus cough syrup and other over-the-counter medications, because I doubted that anyone in the United States would believe me if I couldn’t produce the medications in their packages.

More:
https://fair.org/home/venezuela-coverage-takes-us-back-to-golden-age-of-lying-about-latin-america/

Editorials and other articles:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/1016227130

[rampartc]

1. thanks, judu lynn, one of the most important articles for a while

i've been wonderung wht the administration is so hot to deliver supplies to venezuela (as compared to puerto rico or honduras)

[Judi Lynn]

2. Quite the astounding difference in the response, isn't it?

After treating those people like dirt, they are suddenly wild to help the US-backed, corporate Venezuelan media's version of a "crisis" in Venezuela.

They are hot to spill US American soldiers' blood, if necessary, to dive face deep back into Venezuelan oil, as they have admitted already. This time they think they've got it so ####ed up, they can seize control of CITGO, too.

Thank you so much, rampartc, for your post.

[rampartc]

3. you are very welcoime, judi lynn

thanks for all your great work posting the news.

[GatoGordo]

4. Non credible source

Anything from Mark Cook and Greg Shupak are instantly non-credible. (frequent contributors to TeleSewer and VenezuelaAnalysis, mouthpieces for Chavismo, along with Paul Dobson, John Pilger, Mark Weisbrot, Max Blumenthal, Steve Ellner and the always reliable Joe Emersberger!)

But, for anyone who wants to see what the Chavista Kool-Aid drinkers have to say about what is going on in Venezuela BY VENEZUELANS, try this website:

Aporrea.org

It is a website devoted to all things Chavismo. Yet, despite the fact that they ADORE all things Chavez and Maduro, they also paint a bleak picture of desperation FAR DIFFERENT than what hacks Mark Cook and Greg Shupak from FAIR.org paint of idyllic Venezuela.

Aporrea certainly will never get accused of painting a "mainstream" picture of what is going on in Venezuela.

Unless Mark Cook and Greg Shupak think that Venezuelan communists and socialists are lying too?

[Bacchus4.0]

5. Correo de Orinoco and Telesewer are chavista gov sites that JL's guy uses as examples

Correo address is gob.ve

[GatoGordo]

6. The Golden Days of Lying...

23 of February: The madurismo was naked and defeated, only with the support of the armed groups
By: Javier Antonio Vivas Santana, Sunday, 02/24/2019 06:07 PM

If something was evident with the events of February 22 and 23 is that the madurismo is so alone, that not even the diplomats of Russia and China appeared to accompany him in the border areas or from the media stands of the country with the purpose to condemn the supposed invading forces that came to seize the riches of Venezuela.

Indeed, it is not only that the madurismo appealed to all its authoritarian and dictatorial spirit to isolate and sabotage the actions of the humanitarian aid, that in spite of saying that they have more than 70% of popular support, had to suspend indefinitely by satellite signal and cable, all the channels that broadcast the Venezuela Aid Live concert, among which was National Geographic, but restricted the information portals, to the point of having to block the Google browser including You Tube desperately looking for the town did not have access to accurate and timely information, a fact that originated on the afternoon of that February 22, and that of course extended all the next day.

And we ask ourselves: Is it true what the maduristas say that they have more than 70% of popular support, why suspend such channels, if they are also a "democratic" government? Equally, yes as they affirm that that concert organized by the opposition was a failure, where even "insubstantial" artists were called singers like Reynaldo Armas - what will Cristóbal Jiménez say? - how is it that the other musical event that had planned the madurismo was suspended untimely, if it was going to be crammed with "people"? Something strange, first, suspend channels preventing the population could see the failure of a concert organized by imperialist forces, and second, suspend the other concert that would be a "resounding success." The truth is that the maduristas do not get tired of justifying their own clumsiness.

-snip-

https://www.aporrea.org/actualidad/a276358.html

Aporrea is a Chavista website DEVOTED to the dream that was Chavez' and a Bolivarian Revolution. If a person wanted to get a picture of what is going on IN VENEZUELA, BY VENEZUELANS WHO WORSHIP AT THE ALTER OF HUGO CHAVEZ, then this is the place to go.

And here we find the truth about what is going on. Wholesale privation. 1.7 million percent inflation. Hunger. Disease. A minimum wage of 18 cents per day. No running water. No reliable electricity. A currency that is worthless. And lo and behold... wholesale censorship and outright lies foisted upon the Venezuela public. Do they deny it? HELL NO! They just shrug their shoulders and yell, "IMPERIO! CAPITALISTISTAS! TRUMP/DUQUE/BOLSONARO!"