The Latin American Report # 658

I can attest to the correspondence between many findings reflected in this study, which the U.S. news agency AP reviews and discusses here, and the Cuban reality, specifically the one I experience directly when I teach Political Theory to my rebellious and also naive third-year university students majoring in Computer Science Engineering. I say rebellious because they have that iconoclastic and dissenting spirit so characteristic of that age, especially contrary to the prevailing political regime in Cuba, but naive because their opinions are weakly supported due to a chronic cognitive insufficiency to surf the contemporary informational landscape, which pushes them into that void of post-truth engulfing both young people and adults everywhere.

They are students who cannot distinguish between a claim and a fact, and therefore assume what influencer A or Z says on YouTube without rigorously verifying their messages, especially those aligned with their political and ideological positions. In this sense, I urge them to verify any content that penetrates their particular informational ecosystem, whatever the source. I understand AP as a fairly reliable source insofar as it tends to report facts, and also specifies when some piece of its reporting has not crossed the border from being just a claim. But I am more than clear that it also embodies some or considerable bias, in line with certain interests. One must always want to know if there is a Francis Underwood behind a journalist named Zoe Barnes.

Venezuela: about claims and facts

I want to briefly analyze a particular segment of this Venezuela-focused wire from the very AP through that lens. The main point here is that Maduro has the critical backing of the military and officials in general thanks to a system of rewards and punishments, through which those who remain loyal are permitted to profit, that is: to become corrupt. "The strategy has been crucial for an authoritarian Maduro to keep control of the military, which he lets traffic drugs, oil, wildlife and myriad goods in exchange for coup-proof barracks," reads the report.

The latter is, for sure, a plausible argument, but, where is the evidence, who are these corrupt soldiers, what volumes of oil, wildlife, and drugs do they traffic and to where? How to land that narrative in concrete facts, reflecting how it manifests in Bolívar state or in Monagas. How to convert common sense, intuition, or your faith-based opinion into a tangible, uncontested reality, assuming that this truly exists?

Is the disruption of tourism an undeclared goal of the psychological warfare against Venezuela?

Following Trump's confusing announcement yesterday declaring all Venezuelan airspace "closed," Pegas Touristik, one of the largest Russian tour operators, is redirecting to Cuba clients who had Venezuela as their original destination. The company's director reported that flights to the oil-rich nation, which I understand are mostly directed to Margarita, a popular tourist destination there, will be restored when the situation normalizes, something that can only happen after a concrete outcome or an official explanation of the implications of Trump's truth.

Honduras

We will be very attentive to the development of the elections this Sunday in Honduras, a country where in the middle of the counting strange events can occur.

Backing Trump in blind mode 👇

Regional news brief

• Pre-candidate for deputy Percy Ipanaqué was killed by hitmen last Friday, just hours before the primary elections within his left-wing political force. A clear act of political violence understood within the increase of organized crime's influence in the South American nation.
  

• The latest polls emerging from the Chilean sociopolitical space point to a clear victory for the ultra-conservative candidate José Antonio Kast, a three-time contender to the Palace of the Mint. Although polls have proven unreliable in recent years, there does not seem to be much room for a surprise.
  

This is all for today’s report.