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Maduro shifted a counter-narcotics operation by Colombia and the United States into a new military incursion against him

After the U.S. Embassy in Colombia announced on May 27 that specialized U.S. Army personnel – the Security Force Assistance Brigade (SFAB) – would be supporting Colombian security forces with counter-narcotics operations, pro-Maduro media exaggerated the number of U.S. military personnel deployed to the country. Maduro amplified the claims and implied that the additional personnel were a new attempt to oust him from power.
 
On May 28, following the initial announcement, U.S. Southern Command confirmed the information, reporting the SFAB personnel would arrive on June 1 to support the counter-narcotics operations announced on April 1 by U.S. President Donald Trump. The Maduro regime was pointed to as an objective of these operations as the U.S. Department of Justice had recently charged Maduro himself with drug trafficking alongside other 14 members of his inner circle on March 26.
 
U.S. authorities did not specify how many people were being deployed to Colombia, but the Southern Command described it as a “brigade’s company-sized advisory team.” Colombian media outlets, including El Espectador and El Tiempo, estimated the number of additional U.S. personnel was between 48 and 200. According to El Espectador, the maximum number of personnel in a U.S. military company is 200. 
 
Pro-Maduro media such as TelesurTV, VTV, and Alba Ciudad, however, claimed that 800 U.S. “soldiers” arrived in Colombia. The number 800 was apparently picked up from a tweet by a Colombian congresswoman who did not mention any source to back up the data, indicating a possible intentional exaggeration on the congresswoman’s part. Calling the forces “soldiers,” as well, was also not accurate, because Colombian government and U.S. Southern Command explained it would be an operation of tactical support and information-sharing by an “advisory team.”
 
These outlets quoted Colombian opposition congresspeople, political analysts, and Venezuelan and international pro-Maduro organizations claiming the deployment was an act of provocation against Venezuela. According to a search using social media listening tool CrowdTangle, TelesurTV’s article garnered more interactions on Facebook (4,846) than Colombian and international mainstream news outlets discussing the same topic, such as Revista Semana and CNN in Spanish.

Nicolás Maduro alluded to the outlets’ claims when he announced that he already had proof of a new attempt to oust him from power by stating that the ouster would be “supervised” by Colombian President Iván Duque. Maduro often denounces plans to remove him from power, but they usually remain fantasies. On March 25, however, Maduro’s Ministry of Communications Jorge Rodríguez revealed the first proof of an actual failed coup attempt against Maduro – “Operation Gedeon” – that took place on May 3, 2020.
 
Maduro gave his statement about a possible upcoming coup while celebrating the capture of 57 of 62 “mercenaries” who allegedly participated on Operation Gedeon by Venezuelan military forces. VTV, local media, and other foreign state-funded media, such as the Spanish version of Russian-backed outlets RT and Sputnik, Chinese Xinhua, and Iranian HispanTV, all broadcast Maduro’s claims.

Talk of the Country

In the Media

On June 7, Brazilian service of French news radio RFI published “Brasil se une à Coreia do Norte e à Venezuela ao omitir dados da Covid-19” (“Brazil follows North Korea and Venezuela by omitting Covid-19 cases”). The article compared the Brazilian government with the “authoritarian regimes” in Venezuela and North Korea, after President Jair Bolsonaro claimed that “it was better for Brazil” to not report the total number of deaths and cases, but only new cases, because the “accumulated data” allegedly does not “reflect the reality of the country at the moment” and the fact that many people had recovered. With 707,412 infected as of June 8, Brazil is the country with the second highest reported number of COVID-19 cases, according to the COVID-19 Dashboard by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University. RFI reported that “only North Korea does not report the pandemic statistics around the world. On the other hand, Venezuela discloses underestimated information on the extent of the virus, according to international observers.” A search using BuzzSumo showed that RFI’s article garnered 86,500 interactions on social media, and a version published by Brazilian outlets Globo and UOL had reached more than 200,000 interactions.
 
On June 7, Venezuelan independent media alliance Alianza Rebelde Investiga (ARI, or Rebel Investigative Alliance ) published “COVID-19. La crisis de los hospitales no es un caso importado” (“COVID-19: The hospitals’ crisis is not an imported case”). The article disclosed an internal report by Maduro’s Ministry of Health that revealed the extent of underresourcing of 47 hospitals designated to assist COVID-19 patients. According to ARI, the document – which lacks a precise date – was written on March 13 “on the eve” of the confirmation of first COVID-19 cases in Venezuela. The article starts with a “viral” video recorded at Hospital Universitario de Maracaibo showing a dead body lying abandoned on a stretcher, surrounded by other patients who cry out for medical attention. The ARI investigation, supported by interviews with medical personnel and expert analysis, showed that only 27 of 47 medical centers have access to running water and 38 have X-ray equipment, while 20 lack personal protective equipment equipment for the medical personnel and there are only 15 ambulances over the country. Furthermore, according to ARI, there are 0.8 stretchers per 1,000 inhabitants in Venezuela, while the World Health Organization (WHO) mandates 3 per 1,000 inhabitants in order to fight the outbreak successfully on Twitter between June 6 and June 8, after poll results showed former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden leading in the U.S. presidential race. @VenezuelaAnons was the first account to use the hashtag and pushed it to trend claiming that Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, was a criminal and pedophile. Some Venezuelan anti-Maduro accounts amplified this claim by posting photos of Biden kissing one of his young family members, while others took a photo from 2015 out of context that showed a brief meeting – a handshake – between Biden and Maduro.

What’s Trending

On Social Media

The hashtag #ElCriminalEsBiden (“Biden is the criminal”) trended on Twitter between June 6 and June 8, after poll results showed former U.S. Vice President Joe Biden leading in the U.S. presidential race. @VenezuelaAnons was the first account to use the hashtag and pushed it to trend claiming that Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, was a criminal and pedophile. Some Venezuelan anti-Maduro accounts amplified this claim by posting photos of Biden kissing one of his young family members, while others took a photo from 2015 out of context that showed a brief meeting – a handshake – between Biden and Maduro.

Official Statements

Hemos flexibilizado porque tenemos el control de la pandemia. Ha habido un aumento en los casos internacionales, importados… ¡Brutal! ¿De dónde viene el aumento de los casos importados? Del aumento exponencial de Brasil, Ecuador, Colombia, Perú y Chile (…) El único país del mundo que está recibiendo migrantes que regresan a su país es Venezuela… miles huyendo del Coronavirus, el Corona-hambre, la xenofobia.”

“We have been flexible because we have control of the pandemic. Foreign or imported cases have been increasing. Brutal! Where do the imported cases come from? From the exponential increase in Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, and Chile. Venezuela is the only country in the world where its migrants are returning… thousands running from coronavirus, the corona-hunger [Ed Note: i.e., starvation], xenophobia.” – Nicolás Maduro on VTV broadcast on June 4, 2020.

La última acusación del Departamento de Justicia de EE.UU. deja ver que desde hace años Maduro viene instalando no células sino un ejército de Hezbollah en Venezuela. El mundo debe mirar con bastante recelo la alianza entre el régimen e Irán. El terrorismo podría expandirse.”

“The latest indictment by the U.S. Department of Justice shows Maduro has been setting up not cells but a Hezbollah army in Venezuela for years. The world must look warily at the alliance between the regime and Iran. Terrorism could spread.” – Julio Borges, presidential envoy for foreign affairs for the interim president of Venezuela, posted on Twitter on June 3.

Our Team in The News

On June 6, Diego Area, associate director of the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center, spoke with Voice of America about Wells Fargo’s recent suspension of the payment application Zelle in Venezuela.