[ For all the supposed threat Trump represents and the enthusiasm
sparked by his possible impeachment, Western media continue to march
lockstep behind his administration’s coups in Latin America.]
[[link removed]]

WESTERN MEDIA WHITEWASH BOLIVIA’S FAR-RIGHT COUP  
[[link removed]]

 

Lucas Koerner, Ricardo Vaz
November 15, 2019
Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR)
[[link removed]]


*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
* [[link removed]]

_ For all the supposed threat Trump represents and the enthusiasm
sparked by his possible impeachment, Western media continue to march
lockstep behind his administration’s coups in Latin America. _

Bolivian riot police and soldiers confront supporters of Bolivia's
ex-President Evo Morales during a protest against the interim
government in Sacaba, Chapare province, Cochabamba department on
November 15, 2019. The police later opened fire on the demons, (Photo:
STR/AFP via Getty Images)

 

Bolivia has a new US-backed puppet leader, and the Western media can
hardly conceal their adulation.

Jeanine Áñez declared herself “interim president” in a
near-empty Senate chamber on November 12, proceeding to don the
presidential sash with the assistance of uniformed soldiers. Despite a
lack of quorum rendering the move nakedly unconstitutional, Áñez was
immediately recognized by the Trump administration and 10 Downing
Street.

Tuesday’s scene seemed like a parody of January’s events in
Venezuela, in which a virtually unknown lawmaker, invoking highly
dubious constitutional arguments, proclaimed himself “interim
president” to the delight of Washington.

For all the supposed threat Trump represents and the enthusiasm
sparked by his possible impeachment, Western media continue to march
lockstep behind his administration’s coups in Latin America.

Áñez has been sympathetically described as a “qualified lawyer”
(BBC, 11/13/19
[[link removed]]), a “proud
Christian” (FRANCE 24, 11/13/19
[[link removed]])
as well as a “women’s rights activist and television presenter”
(TIME, 11/12/19
[[link removed]]). REUTERS (11/13/19
[[link removed]])
called her “Bolivian Interim President Jeanine
Áñez,” AP (11/13/19
[[link removed]])
had her as “Bolivia’s newly declared interim president,” whereas
for the BBC (11/13/19
[[link removed]]) she was
simply “President Áñez.” AFP (published in FRANCE
24, 11/13/19
[[link removed]])
described her as “the South American country’s 66th president and
the second woman to hold the post.”

This language mirrors corporate media profiles of Venezuelan coup
leader Juan Guaidó (FAIR.ORG, 7/23/19
[[link removed]]),
who was depicted as a “freedom fighter” (FOX BUSINESS, 1/29/19
[[link removed]]) and a “salsa-loving
baseball fan” (REUTERS, 1/23/19
[[link removed]])
who had “captured the heart of the nation” (NEW YORK
TIMES, 3/4/19
[[link removed]]).
References to Guaidó as “president,” however, have dwindled in
the face of his repeated failure to seize power (FAIR.ORG, 7/23/19
[[link removed]])

Meanwhile, corporate outlets have euphemistically labeled Áñez as
“conservative” (GUARDIAN, 10/13/19
[[link removed]]; NEW
YORK TIMES, 10/12/19
[[link removed]]; REUTERS, 10/13/19
[[link removed]]),
eliding any mention of her far-right, virulently anti-indigenous
politics. Áñez is a member of the right-wing Democratic Social
Movement from the eastern lowland region of Santa Cruz, historically a
bastion of separatist groups and home to some of the most powerful
Bolivian oligarchic families. She has a history of making glaringly
racist remarks, tweeting in 2013 (6/20/13
[[link removed]]) that the “Aymara New Year,” an
indigenous holiday, was “Satanic”: “There is no replacement for
God.” Just days before seizing power, she questioned
on TWITTER (11/6/19
[[link removed]])
whether some people being interviewed could really be
Indigenous—because they were wearing shoes. For all of liberal
journalists’ virtue-signaling concerning minority rights in the
global North, the silence is deafening when it comes to blatant racism
from pro-US elites in Latin America.

Áñez has another scandal brewing, which has yet to be reported in
the English-speaking press: Her nephew was arrested for drug
trafficking in 2017. According to EFE (10/20/17
[[link removed]]),
Carlos Andrés Áñez Dorado was arrested in Brazil on October 15,
2017, in possession of 480 kilograms of cocaine—more than half a
ton.

Given the extensive coverage corporate journalists gave to the arrest
and conviction of Venezuelan first lady Cilia Flores’
“narco-nephews” in 2015–17 (e.g. BUSINESS INSIDER, 10/31/16
[[link removed]]; MIAMI
HERALD, 12/13/17
[[link removed]]; DAILY
BEAST, 12/15/17
[[link removed]]),
one could expect equally damning exposés in the case of Áñez.
Readers shouldn’t hold their breath.

In addition to whitewashing Áñez, corporate journalists have sought
to sanitize the image of the figure widely considered to be the real
force behind the coup: Christian fundamentalist multimillionaire Luis
Fernando Camacho.

Camacho is quite literally a fascist
[[link removed]] who
got his political start in the sieg-heiling Santa Cruz Youth Union, an
ultra-right paramilitary outfit that was instrumental in the Santa
Cruz oligarchy’s 2008 US-backed secessionist plot which ultimately
failed.

But none of this appears to matter to the Western media, which have
portrayed Camacho as a “conservative protest leader”
(BBC, 11/13/19
[[link removed]]), “a
firebrand Christian” (FINANCIAL TIMES, 11/12/19
[[link removed]]) and
a “civic leader” (REUTERS, 11/7/19
[[link removed]]).

Also notoriously absent from mainstream coverage of the Bolivia coup
are references to the fascist tactics employed by the opposition.
Images and reports on social media showed MAS leaders attacked
[[link removed]] by
mobs, tied
[[link removed]] to
trees, their houses set on fire
[[link removed]] and
several being forced to resign by opposition violence. Instead,
corporate journalists innocuously described the increasingly violent
right-wing mobilizations as “mass protests” (BBC, 10/31/19
[[link removed]]),
“dissent” (AP, 11/8/19
[[link removed]])
and “civil disobedience” (NEW YORK TIMES, 10/31/19
[[link removed]]).

The right-wing violence was framed as “clashes” (DW, 11/8/19
[[link removed]]; FRANCE
24, 11/8/19
[[link removed]])
over “controversial” or “disputed” electoral results
(WASHINGTON POST, 11/07/19
[[link removed]]; BBC, 11/7/19
[[link removed]]) enabling the
US-backed opposition to don the mantle of pro-democracy protesters. To
bolster this “fraud” narrative, Western journalists uncritically
repeat the US-financed OAS’ claims of “irregularities,” and
largely ignore a CEPR report
[[link removed]] that
found no evidence discrediting the results.

Once Evo Morales was forced to resign, the switch was immediately
flipped. State security forces, which had stepped aside to let
Camacho’s fascist gangs wreak havoc and attack opponents, were now
deployed to crush the inevitable resistance from indigenous MAS
supporters. But now the media could resort to their tried and tested
technique of criminalizing the anti-coup protests as “violence by
looters or by Mr. Morales’ supporters” (NEW YORK TIMES, 11/12/19
[[link removed]]),
just like was done in the case of anti-neoliberal rebellions in Chile
and Ecuador (FAIR.ORG, 10/23/19
[[link removed]]).
In some cases, journalists seemed to be preemptively justifying
repression, for example writing that “violence erupted” after
Morales’ resignation (FINANCIAL TIMES, 11/11/19
[[link removed]]), or
that security forces were being deployed to “quell violence”
(REUTERS, 11/11/19
[[link removed]]). AP (11/13/19
[[link removed]])
asserted, perhaps wishfully, that “a sense of normalcy returned to
the capital on Wednesday.”

Backed by Washington, the coup that the Western media deny is a coup
(FAIR.ORG, 11/11/19
[[link removed]])
appears successful, at least for the time being. However, as in the
short-lived 2002 coup
[[link removed]] in Venezuela, the media
blackout and savage repression have not stopped multitudes of
Bolivians from taking to the streets to restore democracy. Only time
will tell if the _pueblo_ will triumph.

_Lucas Koerner is an editor and political analyst at
Venezuelanalysis.  _

_Ricardo Vaz is a political analyst and editor at Venezuelanalysis._

*
[[link removed]]
*
[[link removed]]
*
* [[link removed]]

 

 

 

INTERPRET THE WORLD AND CHANGE IT

 

 

Submit via web [[link removed]]
Submit via email
Frequently asked questions [[link removed]]
Manage subscription [[link removed]]
Visit xxxxxx.org [[link removed]]

Twitter [[link removed]]

Facebook [[link removed]]

 




[link removed]

To unsubscribe, click the following link:
[link removed]