By James Patrick Jordan
When corporate media is obsessing on one story, you can pretty much bet that another story is being ignored or, more likely, purposely hidden and obscured. Corporate media, ever beating the drums for whatever war, coup, or intervention the oligarchs are pushing, plays its dutiful and subservient role. The example that comes immediately to mind is the false reports about weapons of mass destruction that paved the way for the invasion and occupation of Iraq in the Second Gulf War. Right now, something very similar is happening with regards to Venezuela. There is a barrage of unverified allegations and outright lies regarding that country, not to mention half-truths devoid of analysis. Every economic woe that has befallen the Venezuelan people is presented as a failure of the administration of Nicholas Maduro and a result of the path the country is taking toward socialism. Virtually never offered is any kind of explanation about the devastating effects of massive hording of goods by the opposition, and the US government’s policies of sanctions, blockades, and other forms of economic sabotage.
Meanwhile, we hear virtually nothing about the humanitarian crisis in Colombia, and when we do hear about that country, it is absurdly paraded as some kind of success story for democracy and capitalism. Just the other day I was listening to National Public Radio and heard Janet Napolitano, Homeland Security Secretary under the Obama administration, talking about how US engagement in Colombia has resulted in a much-improved human rights situation, painting a rosy picture of the country as a tourist destination. Well, Janet, either you’re lying or intolerably misinformed, because if that picture is rosy, the red tint you’re seeing is painted with blood. Seriously, how many of us know that in Colombia, in La Guajira, over the past eight years, at least 6100 indigenous children have died from hunger and lack of water? We don’t hear about that because Colombia is basically a colony of the United States, and a partner in the US-NATO Empire, and publicizing the information would be an indictment and an embarrassment. We don’t hear about that because corporations like US-based Drummond Coal, heavy operators in that region, don’t want you and me to know about how they are robbing the people of water, diverting the flow of rivers from communities and food production, in order to mine and process their dirty energy source. Ironically, in the name of fighting alleged repression and a manufactured crisis in Venezuela, Colombia is a staging ground for intervention in the neighboring country…. https://afgj.org/
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