This is quite a refreshingly in-depth article by Reuters (authors Andrew Cawthorne and Girish Gupta) that explores the most extremist elements of the Venezuelan opposition. It mentions that some of them, unsurprisingly, find safe haven in Miami and more generally that they are “aided by campaigners in Europe and the United States”. It is worth imagining what would happen to Venezuela if it gave refuge to people who were plotting the violent ouster of the US government.
The article says “Maduro’s approval ratings have slumped and the opposition has a good chance of winning control of parliament in elections later this year,..”
Actually, if Reuters relies on its own reporting, it must conclude the opposition need only show up to win the elections handily. Hopefully, as I said here, Reuters will start looking much more analytically at what Venezuelan pollsters say. The ability of the Maduro government to quickly organize a petition drive that has gathered over 6 million signatures (and counting) should motivate Reuters reconsider its approach. The very simplistic reading of polls that Reuters has promoted suggests the government would only get around 3.5 million votes in upcoming elections.
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Its relative. Reuters has frequently reported that the 2002 coup in Venezuela was “US endorsed”. Though it failed to do it in this piece, it has often noted that the 43 deaths in the 2014 protests included police and government supporters. Reuters Caracas based folks seem to include some people who are wiling to depart from totally one-sided reporting.
AP, and countless correspondents who write “news articles” for the likes of the NYT and the UK Guardian would never do that much. That said, one of the most disgusting articles I’ve ever seen about Venezuela had the Reuters brand even though it wasn’t written by their Caracas based reporters.
Reuters is so firmly entrenched in the notion that the Venezuelan government is evil that they will reveal what violent things the opposition is doing–like plotting a coop–as though such behavior is acceptable. They don’t see it as being critical of them any more than reporting on the Allied invasion of Germany. ‘”This is a criminal regime run by a foreign power, Cuba,” he told Reuters. “So there is nothing illegal in fighting them.”‘ Says it pretty well.
But Reuters is circumspect about US military plans and involvement. If they came out with an article detailing that aspect, it would surprise me.