News Release

U.S. Government Propaganda on Venezuela

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In the just released “Intercepted” podcast “Neoliberalism or Death: The U.S. Economic War Against Venezuela,” Jeremy Scahill interviews former UN expert Alfred de Zayas, Venezuela’s Vice Foreign Minister Carlos Ron and others. The program also offers a short segment with Sam Husseini (senior analyst at the Institute for Public Accuracy) attempting to question convicted felon Elliott Abrams, now special envoy on Venezuela for the Trump administration. Abrams is testifying before Congress Wednesday morning. He plead guilty to lying to Congress as part of the Iran-Contra scandal and received what prosecutor Lawrence Walsh called a “cover-up” pardon from George H.W. Bush after he lost the 1992 election. The pardon was approved by Bush’s attorney general, William Barr — who is also now Trump’s current nominee for attorney general. See @accuracy Twitter feed on Venezuela.

A bill to “prohibit the introduction of United States Armed Forces into hostilities with respect to Venezuela” has received virtually no media attention.

STEVE ELLNER, sellner74 at gmail.com, @sellner74
Ellner lives in Venezuela and is currently in the U.S. He just wrote the piece “Regime Change ‘Made in the U.S.A.’“: “Since its outset, the Trump administration has ratcheted up pressure on Venezuela and radicalized its positions. In the process, the Venezuelan opposition has become more and more associated with — and dependent on — Washington and its allies.” Ellner is associate managing editor of Latin American Perspectives and is the editor of The Pink Tide Experiences: Breakthroughs and Shortcomings in Twenty-First Century Latin America.

ALAN MACLEOD, alanmacleod11 at gmail.com, @AlanRMacLeod
MacLeod is author of Bad News From Venezuela: 20 Years of Fake News and Misreporting, which was published by Routledge in April. A member of the Glasgow University Media Group, he has written a number of pieces for the media watch group FAIR recently, including “‘Venezuela’: Media’s One-Word Rebuttal to the Threat of Socialism,” “The ‘Venezuelan People’ Are Whoever Agrees With Donald Trump” and “‘Resistance’ Media Side With Trump to Promote Coup in Venezuela.”

FAIR also recently published the pieces “Western Media Fall in Lockstep for Cheap Trump/Rubio Venezuela Aid PR Stunt” and “Facts Don’t Interfere With Propaganda Blitz Against Venezuela’s Elected President.”