There’s a post from the blog Caracas Chronicles (2/20/14) that’s been making its way around social media, called “The Game Changed in Venezuela Last Night—and the International Media Is Asleep at the Switch,” written by Francisco Toro. It’s not surprising that it’s being shared widely, because it paints an exceedingly dire picture:
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.
Who is Francisco Toro? He used to report for the New York Times, but stepped down, saying he couldn’t conform to the paper’s conflict-of-interest rules: “Too much of my lifestyle is bound up with opposition activism,” he wrote, adding that “I can’t possibly be neutral” about Venezuelan politics (FAIR Action Alert, 6/6/03).
Despite the Times‘ rules, one doesn’t need to be neutral to be a good reporter—in theory; great journalism has been done by the politically engaged. But how trustworthy is Toro’s actual reporting? Are, in fact, “state-sponsored paramilitaries…shooting at anyone who seemed like he might be protesting”? Two days ago, when Toro posted, the death toll stood at six (Reuters, 2/20/14). That’s six deaths too many, certainly, but if paramilitaries were actually shooting at everyone who seemed to be protesting, there would be either very few protesters or the paramilitaries would have to be exceedingly bad shots.
And, in fact, not all the dead are protesters, or killed by pro-government forces. Yesterday, Venezuelanalysis (2/21/14)—a pro-government but independent website—put out a fuller list of people killed in the ongoing clashes, adding up to 10. Three people died after crashing into barricades set up by the opposition, and another person—the brother of a pro-government legislator—was shot while trying to open up a barricaded street. A protester was run over by a motorist trying to drive through a barricade; the driver was reportedly arrested. An intelligence service officer was also arrested in connection with a shooting incident on February 12 that left two people dead—one a protester, the other a government sympathizer.
There is dispute over responsibility for some of the killings, including that of one of the more publicized victims, 22-year-old former beauty contestant Genesis Carmona. But looking at the deaths as a whole, it’s hard to see evidence of what Toro calls a “tropical pogrom.”
The fact that FAIR was writing about Toro’s reporting more than 10 years ago points to the fact that this is not a new story; since Hugo Chávez’s first election in 1998, Venezuela’s government has faced intense opposition, and despite this opposition, the government has repeatedly won elections that have been deemed free and fair (Extra!, 12/06). US journalists tend to identify with the opposition, which is generally wealthier and better educated—and not incidentally whiter—than government supporters (FAIR Blog, 2/25/13). This should be borne in mind when reading reports from Venezuela—from whatever source.
Eric
FAIR apparently rejected my last comment, which was to praise FAIR for doing this story and endorse venezuela (a) nalysis as a source.
Eric
Here are other good sources:
therealnews. com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=11517
therealnews. com t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=11505
Eric
CNN reveals fake opposition photos (also see “Photo manipulation” down in the story):
cnn.com /2014/02/21/world/americas/venezuela-fact-from-fiction/index.html?iref=allsearch
Francisco Toro
Sigh. You just won’t let it go, will you?
Once more, for the record. I was not a “reporter” for the times. I was a stringer. I helped the reporter schedule interviews and made him coffee. For about two months. On the side, as a perk, I wrote a grand total of TWO non-political business stories for the World Business section. No fact reported in those stories has ever been questioned.
After about two months doing this, I mentioned to the guy that I’d started one of these newfangled “blog” things, (it was 2002!) and he said, “oh, wait, that might not be ok with head office.” I said, “oh, right, erm…I guess I can’t keep stringing then.” And that was my “stepping down.” Mostly, it involved me making fewer coffees.
You’d think FAIR would applaud this. Now there’s clarity. I’m an opinion writer. I have a clear point of view. I write opinion and analysis on a blog that doesn’t pretend to be a reported blog because it’s not, it’s a place for opinion and analysis. When I write internationally, I always write on the OpEd side. I am NOT a reporter and – barring those TWO non-political stories in 2002 – never really have been, nor presented myself as such, nor pretended to be that. So why is Fairness and Accuracy in REPORTING on my case about it?
Now let’s look on the otherside: Venezuelanalysis puts on an ABSURD show of being a balanced and reportorial outfit despite its clear subservience to Venezuela’s increasingly authoritarian regime. But they’re the good guys in all this!!
Sheesh, guys, get a grip.
JIn
Thanks for clearing things up. Way too many right wing propagandists spewing their nonsense.
CTA
*** Venezuelanalysis (2/21/14)–a pro-government but independent website ***
Wow. That’s stretching it Jim.
yo
Thank you for this — there is so much mierda out there it’s truly getting thick. Caracas Chronicles — frankly the way to approach it and whatever comes next is like when The Funny Times comes in the mail: get ready to laugh, cause it is so bad. I almost forgot about the half-truths, distortions and outright lies Mr. Toro ladled out regularly.
Now we have Rory Carroll.
barf.
Manuel Serafin
I understand the problems about source validity and bias. But the real deal in Venezuela is very dangerous. Our civil rights are questioned. There are no balance of information only the goverment’s view is exposed by our media. Twitter and other social networks are the truly reporters of horrible things that are happening all nights. There are oficially more than 10 death related with the demonstrations. There are human rights activists that documented imprisoned students tortured and 18 raped by military officers. You can check twiter account @alfredoromero in order to know about the abussive behavior of the Gov’s Police. There are a lot of home videos that shows the brutal repression. In our country the Constitution forbbides use of lethal force or toxic gases in order to control demosntrations but there a lot of testimony of metal instead of plasic bullets fired to the people. Most of the deaths are from gunshoot. The people who are at the street pledging for our rigths and new economic policies do not carry guns, in Venezuela we can’t buy guns as easy as in the States. Obviously when the social network subsitute real media like our national ones but also international as CNN or NTN24 the people makes mistakes because they aren’t journalist and their emotions drives them many of the time. That is the reason behind the fake pictures but there also a lot of rela ones and home videos. Please follow twitter hashtag like #SOSVenezuela or #ResistenciaVzla in order to get some of them and make your own conclussions but if any of you review that kind of material and feels sad or angry as ourselves please help us communicating the news outside our country, All the venezuelan people will appreciate that so much. @mserafinp
Pamela
Under the government of Chavez and now Maduro, the vast majority of Venezuelans have benefited from access to medical care, education and low cost food, including free breakfasts and lunches for school children in low income communities. Part of the reason for shortages is the greatly increased demand due to the economic power of the poorer classes. The PSUV (Venezuelan Socialist Party) has won elections over and over again, as validated by Jimmy Carter’s group.
The opposition has had no program except to gain power and overthrow the elected government. If the opposition were serious about issues in Venezuela, including crime and inflation, they would offer an alternative program and work in the cities where they were elected to implement alternatives. To date, sources including the BBC have documented that the photos shown on social networks by the opposition have been taken from other times and locations, including Egypt and Chile. The Chavez-Maduro government is not responsible for the so-called “polarization” of Venezuela…that was the reality before they were elected where a tiny elite controlled all the wealth and power.
Chapellinera
Pamela you have clearly never visited or lived in Venezuela. Just read the link below and let me know if you believe this would happen in a country were the low income communities have truly benefited by the government; clearly these people are hungry, desperate and in urgent need of education. In over the decade that Chavez and now Maduro have been in power nothing has truly changed; in fact Venezuela recorded one of the world’s highest inflation rates in 2013 at 56 per cent and only last year we had 24,763 killings, so honestly do not try to sell my country as a socialist dream when it is clearly the opposite.
http://www.notitarde.com/La-Costa/Gandola-con-reses-volco-en-Moron-y-habitantes-descuartizaron-a-los-animales-Fotos/2014/02/23/308304
DBC
It’s farcical that the sandalistas would smear Toro, who was championing the leftist trade union party Causa R in his salad days, and that someone would attempt to sneak in Venezuelaanalysis as a credible source.
If you have any experience of Venezuela, all this piece dors is call into question what axes FAIR has to grind.
Who watches the watchmen, especially yhe self-selected.
Por algo será que sale un gringo izquierdista a echarle tierra a los que cuentan la verdad. ¡OJO! y ¡MOSCA!
yo
amazing that right-wingers read FAIR, maybe just trolling around to counter anything progressive on Venezuela, where there’s been a long-standing fatwa against any positive news. If the corporate media in US had been reporting on the many changes that have transformed the country for the better for the big wad of poorer and darker people, then the current violence would be framed correctly, even anticipated by those paying attention. Ditto for the equally sordid corporate media in Venez., then the accomplishments and inclusion would be so documented no one would think to write that ‘nothing has changed”. One might say this is true stupidity, but really its careful, studied blindness: talking with members of the (instiutionally) educated upper strata in Venez. is like entering a parallel artificial universe.
steve bodzin
The government of Venezuelan isn’t left-wing, it is a kleptocracy with left-wing slogans. And while Toro’s statement ‘shooting and anyone’ may have been an exaggeration, the point remains — and is well documented — that paramilitaries have been shooting wildly at crowds in order to drive back demonstrations. This is a new betrayal of the humanist and socialist goals of the Venezuelan revolution and it deserves coverage. Brushing it off as right-wing propaganda disrespects the victims and invites wider violence.
As far as the person ‘reportedly’ arrested for killing a child by ramming his SUV into a barricade, you need to check your ‘reports.’ The country’s attorney general said, hours after the death, it was an accident and that he fled the scene in fear of his own life, so no charges would be filed.
And as for the intelligence cop who whas been implicated in two deaths: he was accompanied by a bunch of paramilitary thugs at the time of that shooting. Indeed, one of the dead was a troublemaking paramilitary leader.
Yes, the situation will attract propagandists of all stripes. All claaims need to be vetted. But Caracas Chronicles is pretty mild stuff, and has a much tighter grip on reality than Venezuela Analysis.
nanagara
an important point that hasn’t been made is that neither Francisco Toro nor Juan Nagel, the two editors of the site, live in Venezuela. that’s fine itself, but they continue to mislead their audience when they address themselves to ‘foreign’ journalists, etc. which is exactly what they are., and use the “we” pronoun as if they lived in the country they write about.
Juan
It’s always great to read about someone trying to defend what the majority elected, even if that election is not resolving the main problem, insecurity. So the “minority” in protest are clearly wrong and they should not be on the street. Fuck them in the ass, literally. I smell a paid chavista, or a naive writer over here.
bodzin
Just to add to my earlier comment, I see that yes, the driver who ran down 6 people at a barricade, killing one, was indeed detained and is being held on murder charges. That’s good to hear. And yet here’s a link to the national prosecutor explaining away his actions: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z4Du63PNRrM
And here is an inventory of people killed by security forces in the protests: http://periodicoellibertario.blogspot.com/2014/02/inventario-del-horror-lista-de-personas.html
One must be careful with lists of deaths in Venezuela as there is such a high rate of background violence that some oppos and some chavistas are likely to be killed any day of the year. If you’re writing an article about deaths related to the protests, it’s best to include only those cases that are clearly political.
Richard Estes
Don’t worry. If the opposition gains power, we won’t be hearing anything about the repressive measures that it will adopt against the Chavistas and their supporters. The real pictures and video of their actions will be suppressed. When a political movement overthrows a government that has been democratically elected, it requires a lot of violence to preserve power. Needless to say, there will be many more than 10 deaths resulting from their efforts.
Dana Franchitto
As someone who loves FAIR as a credible source of journalism and analysis of journalism, I must question how ‘Venezuealanalysis can be “pro gvt yet independent”.
Joe Emersberger
Manuel Serafin writes “There are no balance of information only the government’s view is exposed by our media.” This is a lie that is spread repeatedly. Even people who don’t speak Spanish should be able to realize that it is a lie by checking out the front page of Ultimas Noticias, Venezuela’s largest circulating newspaper.
http://www.ultimasnoticias.com.ve/
Check out the numerous pages of hits you get on Ultimas Noticias by searching Leopoldo Lopez or Maria Corina Machado, two of the most hardline opposition leaders.
If you look closely at the Carter Center’s analysis of the TV media, as Mark Weisbrot just did,
http://www.cepr.net/index.php/blogs/the-americas-blog/true-colors-of-venezuelan-student-movement-apparent-in-feb-22nd-releases
you’ll learn that Marduo had no significant advantage over Capriles in Media coverage during the election of April 2013. It actually quite possible that Capriles had the edge because the Carter Center’s analysis excluded a great deal of private media coverage. Regardless, claiming that “only the government’s view is exposed by our media” is an incredibly brazen lie – an important one, however, for people hoping for another coup.
Joe Emersberger
Francisco Toro,
On Twitter, didn’t you “cop a plea” to making very dubious claims “in the heat of the moment.”? Seems be confirmed by your odd failure to address the key point made in Jim’s blog post ” if paramilitaries were actually shooting at everyone who seemed to be protesting, there would be either very few protesters or the paramilitaries would have to be exceedingly bad shots.”
Joe Emersberger
Manuel Serafin writes “There are no balance of information only the government’s view is exposed by our media.” This is a lie that is spread repeatedly. Even people who don’t speak Spanish should be able to realize that it is a lie by checking out the front page of Ultimas Noticias, Venezuela’s largest circulating newspaper.
Check out the numerous pages of hits you get on Ultimas Noticias by searching Leopoldo Lopez or Maria Corina Machado, two of the most hardline opposition leaders.
If you look closely at the Carter Center’s analysis of the TV media, as Mark Weisbrot just did, you’ll learn that Marduo had no significant advantage over Capriles in Media coverage during the election of April 2013. It actually quite possible that Capriles had the edge because the Carter Center’s analysis excluded a great deal of private media coverage. Regardless, claiming that “only the government’s view is exposed by our media” is an incredibly brazen lie – an important one, however, for people hoping for another coup.
PS The version of this comment that has links is still being “moderated”. Wish you guys woud imporove your SPAM filter.
Joe Emersberger
Manuel ,
The investigative report Ultimas Noticias did about the (now arrested) SEBIN agent who appears to have shot people completely refutes the claim that you are trying to defend –namely that “There are no balance of information only the government’s view is exposed by our media”. The Carter Center said that the government news media has only a 25% audience share. The CC’s analysis of TV news during the last presidential election campaign included the CADENAS you object to. Without accounting for audience share the government had a 57% to 34% advantage over Capriles in total minutes of coverage. That finding by itself, just like the investigative reporting of Ultimas Noticias regarding the SEBIN agent, completely refutes your claim that “only the government’s view is exposed by our media”. If audience share is accounted for then, as Weisbrot has shown in a very recent piece (sorry no link coz I have problems posting links on this site) then the advantage reduced to only 54% to 44%. Additionally Capriles received 75% of his coverage in the private media which, according to the CC has 75% of the audience share for news – and that is probably conservative: “…a ranking of AGB Nielsen for all hours during January-June 2013 found the state TV with just an 8.4 percent audience share. Furthermore, the private and public channels examined in the Carter Center study make up just 54 percent of the total audience share for all programming.”
(from Weisbrot’s piece which you can find on VenezuelAnalysis).
Johnny Graterol Guevara
Mr. Joe Emersberger:
Did you somehow forgot to mention that Carter Center report is about April 14 elections in 2013? We are in 2014. Is the situation regarding the media the same, as it was back then?
Or are you trying to pull the same trick as Mark Weisbrot?
April
PRO GOVERNMENT BUT INDEPENDENT? I DON’T THINK SO. EVEN THE GUARDIAN HAS BEEN REPORTING WHAT YOU DENOUNCE. AND THE MURDER RATE IN VENEZUELA IS HIGHER THAN IN IRAQ. ONCE IN A WHILE, IT’S OK TO SAY SOMETHING NEGATIVE ABOUT A LEFTIST. FOR EXAMPLE, CUBA IS RULED BY A CASTRO LED DICTATORSHIP. IN FACT IF YOU DO, IT INCREASES YOUR CREDIBILITY.
Frank Munley
Please subscribe me to your new posts. Thanks.
Paul Barbara
I certainly am not impartial: I have been a Human Rights campaigner since the 1970’s, mostly Central & Southern America but also later East Timor. I know what the Bankster Warmongering Corporatist US has done in Latin America, and what they are trying to do in Venezuela.
Lots of pictures of supposed crimes by the Venezuelan Government have been shown to be old pictures, from mmmany other countries, or old pics from Venezuela (see Venezuela Analysis). But also, check out ‘Ukraine Protests Carefully Orchestrated: The Role of CANVAS, US-Financed “Color Revolution Training Group” – they are trying to pull the same stunt in Venezuela (why not? They keep getting away with the same old tricks. The MSM will print the Government and their stooges lies, and won’t print the truth – they are owned by the Corporatists and Banksters).
UUWake up, folks! Use online news sources like FAIR, Global Research etc.; don’t waste money on the MSM propaganda rags.
A Russian once said to a Westerner, ‘At least we knew Pravda & Izvestia were pure propaganda; you Westerners don’t understand your ‘Newspapers’ are just as bad’.
Paul Barbara
I certainly am not impartial: I have been a Human Rights campaigner since the 1970’s, mostly Central & Southern America but also later East Timor. I know what the Bankster Warmongering Corporatist US has done in Latin America, and what they are trying to do in Venezuela.
Lots of pictures of supposed crimes by the Venezuelan Government have been shown to be old pictures, from many other countries, or old pics from Venezuela (see Venezuela Analysis). But also, check out ‘Ukraine Protests Carefully Orchestrated: The Role of CANVAS, US-Financed “Color Revolution Training Group” – they are trying to pull the same stunt in Venezuela (why not? They keep getting away with the same old tricks. The MSM will print the Government and their stooges lies, and won’t print the truth – they are owned by the Corporatists and Banksters).
Wake up, folks! Use online news sources like FAIR, Global Research etc.; don’t waste money on the MSM propaganda rags.
A Russian once said to a Westerner, ‘At least we knew Pravda & Izvestia were pure propaganda; you Westerners don’t understand your ‘Newspapers’ are just as bad’.
Arthur Nonymous
cf. Paul Barbara – “A Russian once said to a Westerner, ‘At least we knew Pravda & Izvestia were pure propaganda; you Westerners don’t understand your ‘Newspapers’ are just as bad’.” I agree.
As to Pamela vs. Chapellinera: you have a country like most in Latin America run by the right for the rich in concert with the US. On January 1, some year, a progressive leader emerges (e.g. Chavez) and if all the country’s problems are not fixed by January 2, the US and its sympathizers call the leader worthless. How long does it take to overcome decades or a century of lawlessness and oppression? Were all the 24,763 killing commissioned or sanctioned by the government? Does the fact that the US and the West in general fights tooth and nail clandestinely and openly to ruin the country and destroy the leader have anything to do with the rate of progress in cleaning up the problems of the past? There’s no reason to be blinded by idealism but there’s no reason not to be a realist, either. If the place was shit on day one, that will take decades to clean up – not months or weeks, as detractors seem to give the process. It also helps if you get out and push, instead of whining that too many things have not yet changed for the better. The history of the Russian Revolution taught us that it took years to consolidate the revolution, having to survive the Germans in WWI and then a Civil War. It also taught us not to forget the ideals for which the revolution was fought. The more you oppose and resist people trying to do good things, the more likely that those people will turn into assholes by the time they prevail. You will have spent so much effort only to achieve a self-fulfilling prophecy, when instead you could try to find what you can agree with and work in tandem to set things straight, rather than whine about what has not yet changed that always had been. It’s an easy bet that Venezuelans don’t want the killings. So quit fighting the current leaders who have not yet singlehandedly instantly stopped all human crime and corruption, and work to fix the place so that people find no incentive to commit the crimes and corruption. If you think you know better, then run for office in some district and argue your points in the legislature. Otherwise, quit complaining. The government does not consist in any one man’s doing, so quit confusing crimes by various people with some power, with crimes commissioned by the government as a matter of policy.
Chrigid
Chapellinera–what is it we are supposed to be looking at on the link you provided? http://www.notitarde.com/La-Costa/Gandola-con-reses-volco-en-Moron-y-habitantes-descuartizaron-a-los-animales-Fotos/2014/02/23/308304. People can benefit mightily from government programs and still be poor enough to take advantage of a cattle truck overturning in their vicinity. The article doesn’t mention how many animals were slaughtered, or how many of those were hurt, dead or perfectly healthy. It also doesn’t give any information about what kind of government assistance this community has been receiving. All the item does is cover a brutal incident. It does not establish and of the cause-and-effect connections you would have us make.
Paul Barbara
@steve bodzin: Sure people have been shot in demonstrations, just as they were in the 2002 attempted coup. And it was after shown that it had all been pre-planned, and that the shootings had been done by the Yankee stooges, as a ‘False Flag’ incident where the Govt. forces would be blamed.
2002? Let’s go back a bit, to 2000, when Aaron Russo was told by his then ‘friend’, Nick Rockefeler (yes, one of THEM) eleven months before 9/11 that there was going to be an ‘incident’, and because of it the US where going to go into Afghanistan and Iraq, we would see US troops ‘hunting through caves for Arabs’, there would be a ‘War on Terror’, and after that ‘we’ would go after Venezuela (when was the coup attempt? Oh, yes, I remember, 2002!). Rockefeler also told Russo plenty of other stuff; Russo realised thar Rockefeler & Co. were evil, and broke off relations; in 2001, on 9/11, he realised what Rockefeler had been talking about, and started to speak out. He ‘contracted’ cancer, and died in 2007 (see ‘Aaron Russo – Historic Interview’ video online).
Read ‘A People’s History of the United States’ by Howard Zinn; read the TRUE history of the US, which has been expansionist and aggressive since it’s inception.
And the induced shortages, sabotage, and paid ‘protesters’ and media is a re-run of Chile. Is THAT what you anti-Govt. posters want???
TeeJae
It is just me or does it seem suspicious that the opposition forces come out of the woodwork to denounce the Venezuelan government (on this and many other comment threads) in tandem with these protests?
I wonder who’s bankrolling them.
michael e
Does anybody read the New York Crimes?Yes I suppose they do.To liberal for my blood.Am I getting the fact that the writer talked about just slapped down FAIR and J Naureckas?
Paul Barbara
Yeh, nice peaceful, ‘Democracy’ (oh, sorry, I forgot, the Government won the election! – no matter!) loving people, demonstrating for Uncle Sam and it’s ‘Bankster Thieving Murderering War Criminals’.
Check out Costa-Gavros’ ‘Missing’; is that what you want for Venezuela?
And check out: ‘Peaceful demonstrations? No. Today’s sniper killings prove slow-motion coup’, by Arturo Rosales, Axis of Logic, 6 March 2014:
‘Snipers murdered a member of the National Guard (GNB) and a citizen this morning as the men were clearing a street barricade set up by the opposition.
Despite all the support in the corporate media for the “student demonstrations” in Venezuela the protests have turned from any semblance of being peaceful to violating constitutional and civil rights of the population be denying citizens free access and movement in parts of mainly Eastern Caracas.
To escalate the situation even more a National Guardsman (GNB) and a young motorcyclist were assassinated this morning in the middle class area of Los Ruices – where the state TV (VTV) has been under siege for almost two weeks – by sniper fire as they tried to clear one of the “barricades for liberty” set up by local fascists.
Both were shot dead with bullets to the head while trying to clean up road-blocking barricades. Right after the incident an opposition – let’s be honest fascist – mob appeared and burned the GNB’s motorcycle where it lay…’