UPDATE II:

The fact that US endorsed the 2002 coup was put back into the article.

UPDATE:

Today’s Reuter’s article (by Andrew Cawthorne) on Ledezma’s arrest was far more reasonable as I’ll explain in a bit, but, as Joel Gillin pointed out, the article edited out the US government’s endorsement of the 2002 coup that briefly ousted Hugo Chavez.

The original article stated (accurately) that “the United States endorsed a brief-lived coup against Chavez in 2002”.

That fact was then removed from the article.

However, the article does state

“Although opposition leaders lampoon Maduro’s coup allegations, there is a history of plotting against Venezuela’s socialist government including a brief 2002 coup against Chavez.

Some radical activists acknowledge the existence of an underground movement bent on toppling Maduro, and recently detained student radical Lorent Saleh surfaced in a government-broadcast video praising Ledezma as “an old fox… the politician who has most supported the resistance.”

The public prosecutor’s statement mentioned Ledezma’s ‘links with the case of Lorent Saleh,’ among other activists in jail accused of planning attacks.”

That provides way more context and balance than yesterday’s article which I wrote about below. Nevertheless, editing out US support for the 2002 is inexcusable. Ignoring the coup rumors spread by the international press in January – including Reuters themselves – is also inexcusable.

H/T: George Ciccariello-Maher

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Reuters is very dismissive of the coup attempt the Venezuelan government said it thwarted on February 12. The coup attempt has been reported – as a Venezuelan government allegation – in some Reuters articles, but it did not make their headlines until today.

For example, Anotonio Ledezma, a hard-line opposition mayor, was just arrested because members of the armed forces, who were arrested last week (and whose names were released to the public) named him as a conspirator.  Reuters’ headline reads

“Venezuela arrests opposition mayor of Caracas”

A later version of the article by Brian Ellsworth ran with the headline

“Venezuela arrests opposition mayor accused of coup plot”

finally putting the word “coup” in the headline.

The article says that the government cited a document signed by Ledezma that “called for a ‘national transition’ as evidence he was involved in a coup attempt.”

Reuters’ says nothing about arrested members of the armed forces naming Ledezma as a conspirator – as if the document were the only evidence the government says it has. Reuters is also outrageously vague about the document Ledezma signed. The document is available online (here, here and here) It says (preposterously) that Venezuela is living through the worst crisis in its history under a “totalitarian” government that has brought Venezuela to the brink of a “humanitarian emergency”. It adds that Maduro’s government has entered a “terminal phase”.  It does not state that Maduro is headed towards an electoral catastrophe. It is deliberately vague on the exact nature of the “terminal phase” but clearly envisions an annihilation so compete that all the Maduro government’s policies are undone and its leadership is prosecuted.

On March 5 of 2002, about a month before a coup that ousted the Chavez government for two days, opposition leaders put together a similar a “transition pact” as the US embassy in Caracas cheerfully described it. See Eva Golinger’s book “The Chavez Code”.

Aside from these glaring omissions, just in case we missed the point that we should scoff at the coup attempt, Reuters says “Maduro frequently denounces alleged coup plots by opposition leaders, usually without presenting concrete evidence.”

A few reasons why this sentence jumps off the page

• Reuters never makes sweeping remarks like this that dismiss allegations made against the Maduro government by the US government or the opposition. For example, look for such a remark in this article about drug trafficking allegations made against Diodado Cabello. You won’t find one.
• Reuters itself, several weeks ago, was encouraging a coup and serving it up as “analysis“ to readers. Many in the international press were openly excited about the prospects of a coup as I wrote here. But now it suits them to forget all that and dismiss a coup attempt as paranoia or opportunism.

I seriously doubt the opposition will be able to succeed in violently seizing power as it briefly did in 2002 – no thanks to the international press however.

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