A flurry of reports by corporate media today (see below) about Venezuela’s long time former prosecutor, Luisa Ortega Diaz, saying she is working to have President Maduro tried by the ICC.

Ousted Venezuelan prosecutor seeks ICC probe into Maduro

Venezuela’s ex-chief prosecutor asks international court to try Maduro

Venezuela’s president accused of crimes against humanity

Venezuela’s Ousted Chief Prosecutor Says President Nicolas Maduro Is Responsible for 8,000 Murders

Venezuela’s ex-prosecutor wants Maduro tried at the Hague

How many of these articles mentioned the following facts that I wrote about months ago? (Spoiler alert: the number is ZERO):

In 2014, Ortega was named by US Senator (and all around right wing creep) Marco Rubio as one of the many Venezuelan officials he wanted targeted for sanctions by the U.S. government. As Attorney General, Ortega was a key official behind the prosecution of people involved with violent protests in 2014, including the international media darling, Leopoldo Lopez, so it was utterly unsurprising that she was on Rubio’s hit list. In February of 2015 it certainly looked like very much like Ortega was added to a list of Venezuelan officials sanctioned with VISA restrictions by Obama. In announcing the VISA restrictions the US State Department said that, in order to comply with confidentiality laws, it would not reveal exactly who it sanctioned. However, three days later, Ortega announced that she was hiring a lawyer to sue the U.S. government over the sanctions. She either knew (or perhaps assumed for very good reason) that she was on the list.

Now read recent accounts in Reuters, the BBC, Aljazeera and the Financial Times about Luisa Ortega. None of them mention that she had initiated legal action against the U.S. government, never mind explore obvious questions about it. Did she drop the idea of suing the U.S. government? If so, why? 

Luisa Ortega is basically enjoying a perk that comes with making yourself useful to the US Empire. Ortega has gone from threatening to sue the corrupt and murderous US government to openly collaborating with it. When you do that, corporate journalists become decidedly uninterested in questioning your stated motives.

I should mention that Reuters did mention some of the information I wrote about in passing at the end of an article about a month ago. Reuters said that “Two years ago she said she assumed she was on the U.S. State Department’s list of Venezuelan officials who would be denied visas and have property confiscated there due to alleged rights abuses and corruption.”

The article still didn’t mention that she announced she was hiring a lawyer to sue the US government, or that Marco Rubio had put her on his hit list of Venezuelan officials to sanction.

The message sent to Venezuelan officials is that they will be treated kindly by the western media if they turn against Venezuela’s democratically elected government. The more disgusting message being sent constantly to Venezuela voters is that they had better vote for the people supported by Washington and its accomplices in Ottawa and the EU.

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