Gary Larson: A true hero of mankindIt's not just the English-speaking world that gets fed BS propaganda about the Bolivia of Evo Morales. When actual hard figures and third-party corroborated facts are studied it's clear that Bolivia under Morales is doing a good job in controlling the local cocaine production and trafficking business (or if you like, a damned better job than in Colombia). However that won't stop the opposition from making shit up.
1) Los Tiempos is a Bolivian newspaper out of Cochabamba owned by the very wealthy and very anti-Morales Canelas family.
2) InfoBAE is a way right-wing financial rag that circulates amongst the movers and shakers of the Argentine business community.
3) Los Tiempos runs an editorial hit piece that says "Bolivia is advancing on very dangerous ground. The virtual legalization of narcotrafficking has acquired the air of State policy and this is something that cannot be left unpunished." Total BS of course, backed up by bias and prejudice of the authors and owners of the authors, not by anything as boring as a fact.
4) But sure enough InfoBAE picks up on the story, spins it and this morning presented Argentina with the headline....
1) Los Tiempos is a Bolivian newspaper out of Cochabamba owned by the very wealthy and very anti-Morales Canelas family.
2) InfoBAE is a way right-wing financial rag that circulates amongst the movers and shakers of the Argentine business community.
3) Los Tiempos runs an editorial hit piece that says "Bolivia is advancing on very dangerous ground. The virtual legalization of narcotrafficking has acquired the air of State policy and this is something that cannot be left unpunished." Total BS of course, backed up by bias and prejudice of the authors and owners of the authors, not by anything as boring as a fact.
4) But sure enough InfoBAE picks up on the story, spins it and this morning presented Argentina with the headline....
"The DEA Expulsion: Bolivians Admit They Will Be the Centre of Narcotrafficking"
....based entirely on the previous day's slanted and factually incorrect editorial in the Morales-hating newspaper.
Now if this kind of media connection sounds familiar to you, that's because it is. In fact Latin America has this technique down to a tee. Read Memory in Latin America's note right here on how the CIA funded Chile's El Mercurio newspaper against the Allende regime and towards the fascism of Pinochet for a great and lasting example. Here's an excerpt from Lillie's note:
"...The El Mercurio network was used by the CIA to "launder propaganda, disinformation, fake themes and scare stories which were then circulated through 70 percent of the Chilean press and 90 percent of the Chilean radio. The USIA and the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) in turn circulated these stories all over the world...."
Old habits die hard, y'see. Lying and falsifying the events happening in Bolivia isn't just limited to the English-speaking press. The subversion of true democracy is also alive and well and living in South America.