ABC News Reports US 'Captured' Maduro; Reality Check Still Pending
ABC News briefly posted a headline claiming 'US forces captured President Nicolás Maduro' in Venezuela, complete with a photo gallery. While quickly removed as an 'internal system error,' the accidental headline reveals a chilling presumption within mainstream discourse. This wasn't a typo about a cat; it was a fabrication of a military coup, an overt act of war, presented as a fait accompli. This
'error' reflects years of US policy, including the 2020 State Department bounty on Maduro’s head—a reward of $15 million—effectively legitimizing his capture outside international law. One might wonder if the 'error' was in its premature release, rather than its content. After all, the US has a lengthy history of orchestrating regime change in Latin America, from Chile to Nicaragua, often under
the guise of promoting 'democracy.' The casualness of ABC's 'mistake' suggests such an intervention is not just conceivable, but perhaps, in the minds of some editors, inevitable or even desirable. Are we to believe the only inaccuracy was the tense of the verb?