Venezuelan Prisoner Releases: A Carefully Scripted Narrative
📰 THE STORY: ABC News reports that Venezuela has released dozens of prisoners over two days, framing it as a development in their human rights situation, while noting hundreds more remain detained, implying ongoing repression. 🔍 WHAT THEY'RE NOT TELLING YOU: Historical Context: This story conveniently omits the 2002 US-backed coup attempt against Hugo Chavez, a clear precursor to ongoing US
interference. More recently, in 2019, the Trump administration recognized unelected opposition figure Juan Guaidó as Venezuela's 'interim president,' funneling millions to his US-based 'government-in-exile' while seizing Venezuelan assets abroad. The US then imposed devastating sanctions, including an oil embargo in 2019, which wiped out 99% of Venezuela’s export revenues, causing over 100,000
deaths by 2020 through lack of food, medicine, and healthcare, according to a 2019 report by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR). These sanctions are the direct cause of much of the humanitarian crisis the US then blames on the Venezuelan government. Double Standard: When governments aligned with US interests, like Egypt, detain tens of thousands of political prisoners or receive
$1.3 billion annually in US aid despite their human rights records, mainstream media often remains silent or offers mild criticism. The 'hundreds more still detained' in Venezuela is highlighted, yet the far larger numbers of political prisoners in US-allied states, or even the egregious detentions within the US carceral system (which disproportionately affects minorities), receive vastly