Take over networks and streets
Jorge Enrique Jerez Belisario, Granma, August 30, 2024 —
Nicolás Maduro won the last elections in Venezuela, but the story of the mainstream media and some others is different. This script is not new and accompanies every movement of the world right wing, the economic power and those who do not want to share the wealth among all.
What has been happening since July 28 in the nation of Simón Bolivar is part of an ongoing media coup against the left wing in the region.
Examples abound in recent years: the dirty war against Sandinismo in Nicaragua, the military coup against Zelaya in Honduras, the parliamentary coup against Fernando Lugo in Paraguay, the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff in Brazil and the military coup against Evo Morales in Bolivia.
The parts of this scheme are often repeated and seldom internalized: first, the democratic nature is denied, fraud is invoked, attempts are made to break the consensus, and therefore the process is described as illegitimate and repressive…until it reaches dictatorship, a term much feared in the region because of what real military dictatorships meant.
The lawfare and the rigged trials against Lula da Silva in the South American giant, against Cristina Fernández in Argentina and against Rafael Correa in Ecuador have had a similar media strategy.
This journalistic discourse has succeeded in making Latin American society perceive the left wing as corrupt, and that is why it has been difficult to mobilize people in the face of these trials, and they have even succeeded in making it no longer an option for many.
They do it with an excellent management of communication, segmentation of audiences and the use of big data to destabilize, through communication, governments and political power.
This is not new, it is the cumulative effect of a cultural and media war that has managed to influence the left wing itself and the oppressed, and has penetrated to the point of convincing those who believe they are millionaires –without a penny- to think like capitalists.
The conditions that have led to this context are diverse, among them the lack of plurality of voices as a result of a strong media monopoly that favors power and media oligarchies. This is due to the non-application of the region’s authentic communication models and the reproduction of those that have emerged further north, as well as the existence of strong links between media groups, tycoons and large transnational corporations.
Theoretically, analysts agree that the media provide audiences with tools and schemes for constructing meaning. The transmission of ideology works by drawing on familiar cultural themes that echo within audiences.
It is therefore wrong to say that the media reflect society. The journalist, the media and the discourse as a whole construct a social reality and its representations, always convenient to the dominator, the one who pays.
Media and digital platforms build a social reality and its representations, always convenient for the dominator, the one who pays.
THE ELOQUENT HISTORY
Media terrorism is not a 21st-century phenomenon, as Chileans who experienced it against the Popular Unity government of Salvador Allende know well. There, Chile’s main mass media, business corporations, and right-wing political parties joined forces to overthrow a democratically elected government.
More recently, the role of the press in the overthrow of Fernando Lugo in Paraguay was analyzed by Arlenin Aguillón, who found similarities between the content of the communiqués of the Colorado Party and the texts of the newspaper ABC Color, as a way of imposing a political agenda against President Lugo and forging the coup, also an example of the relationship between the traditional political parties and the most recalcitrant media.
The press, through political communication strategies that have not been fully studied by the left wing, caused trust in Lugo to fall from 84% to 37% between 2008 and 2011.
Globo Group, in Brazil, has a lot to do with the attacks on the left wing in that country and in the region, but it is all part of a monopolistic model of information construction, fabricated by the military dictatorship. They, who had a history of corruption and deviation, turned out to be the main accusers of the leaders of the Workers’ Party and led the orchestra against Lula and Dilma.
Referring to Venezuela and to the latest phase of the media offensive against that country and its powers, we find a new element, and that is the openly confrontational position of the owner of the social network X, formerly called Twitter, Elon Musk -a billionaire who represents the interests of capital and the U.S. extreme right wing- from the moment the election results were announced.
This is an example of what happens when the media are not in the hands of the majority and defend the interests of minority groups, which are obviously presented, with manipulation included, as the interests of all. Because communication is and will continue to be classist.
CUBA, A NEW STRATEGY FOR AN OLD PURPOSE
Internet is and will continue to be a field of military operations. I am not the one who says it, the U.S. government itself declared it when it created the U.S. Cyber Command. Cuba is also a victim of these lynchings, open and institutionalized from foreign powers; there is the taskforce to influence the Island from digital platforms.
In this context, in the face of the failures and the discrediting of the traditional counterrevolution, media such as CiberCuba, ADN Cuba, Cubanos por el Mundo, Cubita Now, Cubanet, Periodismo de Barrio, El Toque, El Estornudo, YucaByte… all of them aligned to discredit the management of the Cuban government and delegitimize the social system.
A more aggressive discourse is no longer enough. For some time now, and copying tactics also applied in Venezuela, they have opted for a direct attack on the currency and openly incite continuous destabilizing attempts against the Island. Everything comes out of the same plan: to intensify the economic war, and then those same platforms blame the Government for being ineffective; this is the disloyal war that seeks to destroy the Revolution.
Faced with this, we have to find new ways in the discourse and in the political work, to be accompanied by the popular forces and to achieve deep and cultural transformations that allow us to advance in the progressive processes, and that are not so vulnerable to media coups.
It is in the social networks that realities are built, and it is in the streets that people’s representations are influenced and these processes are defended. So we have to fight in two trenches: against soft coups, there is no better strategy than to take over networks and streets.