Political Discussion and Commentary
A place to discuss politics and offer political commentary. Self posts are preferred, but links to current events and news are allowed. Opinion pieces are welcome on a case by case basis, and discussion of and disagreement about issues is encouraged!
The intent is for this community to be an area for open & respectful discussion on current political issues, news & events, and that means we all have a responsibility to be open, honest, and sincere. We place as much emphasis on good content as good behavior, but the latter is more important if we want to ensure this community remains healthy and vibrant.
Content Rules:
- Self posts preferred.
- Opinion pieces and editorials are allowed on a case by case basis.
- No spam or self promotion.
- Do not post grievances about other communities or their moderators.
Commentary Rules
- Don’t be a jerk or do anything to prevent honest discussion.
- Stay on topic.
- Don’t criticize the person, criticize the argument.
- Provide credible sources whenever possible.
- Report bad behavior, please don’t retaliate. Reciprocal bad behavior will reflect poorly on both parties.
- Seek rule enforcement clarification via private message, not in comment threads.
- Abide by Lemmy's terms of service (attacks on other users, privacy, discrimination, etc).
Please try to up/downvote based on contribution to discussion, not on whether you agree or disagree with the commenter.
Partnered Communities:
• Politics
• Science
view the rest of the comments
Western news agencies consider the 2024 election stolen and defer to the Comando Con Venezuela estimate which asserts the PUD won by 4.1M votes rather than losing by 1.1M votes.
This assumption of massive national voter fraud has become the backbone of criticisms of the Venezuelan national government and legitimized the subsequent protest wave that swept Venezuela later that year. It's been repeated - both explicitly and implicitly - on a variety of national news channels. Maduro has been labeled a "dictator" in western right-wing press repeatedly. He's openly denounced even in the progressive-liberal circles that still have a hard-on for regime change as a US foreign policy. That's what the audiences for these groups hear over and over and over again.
This, combined with the historically weak economy, the endless assertions by conservative activists that Venezuela is operating as a drug cartel, the numerous clashes along the border with Guyana in disputed territory that are reported as Venezuelan aggression, and the outspoken collection of Venezuelan dissidents that are given an international media platform result in a heavily negative opinion of Maduro.
With this accumulated bad press, it is easier to believe he is holding the nation at gunpoint than to accept the Venezuelan opposition parties are even more unpopular than PSUV.
Your points in first two paragraphs are valid. Your 3rd paragraph is also valid for someone who is familiar with Venezuela and has kept up with it in the news over the years. But it is not something someone with surface level knowledge and investigation would have come up with, especially for the many people who couldn't point the country on a map. Which is why I find it puzzling.
You may want to check out a book by Michael Parenti, Inventing Reality.