Truth or visa?: The New York Times lies against Cuba and Venezuela

After The New York Times confirmed that the humanitarian aid truck had been burnt by guarimberos (opposition demonstrators), someone warned me about the unusual favor that the imperial press was doing to the Bolivarian Revolution: "With the alleged truth already known and published, they are seeking credibility on the Venezuela issue. It’s the old strategy of the stick and the carrot. Prepare yourself for the lie disguised as truth they are going to release later".

Barely two weeks had passed for the warning to become true. Last Sunday, The New York Times just published a report in which it accuses the Government of Venezuela of, along with the complicity of the Cuban doctors working in that country, using food and medicines to pressure the citizens before the 2018 presidential elections, warning them that they would be cut off from subsidies and treatments if they did not vote for Nicolás Maduro.

Quoted by EFE agency, that paradigm of “serious press” known as The New York Times bases its assertions on the testimony of 16 deserters of Cuba’s medical missions to Venezuela, “who described a system of deliberate political manipulation, such as not using basic medicines on patients aimed at reserving them for the electoral period, when votes in favor of Maduro were demanded in exchange for treatments”.

You do not need to be very intelligent to find the backdrop of this new revelation of the US daily. Firstly, to question the legitimate nature of the May 2018 elections: “The accounts of manipulation and fraud remark the many challenges to Maduro’s legitimacy as president".

And secondly, to cast serious doubts on Cuba’s solidarity medical aid to that country, since The New York Times replicated the message of the Cuban interference that the hawks in charge of the campaign of lies against Cuba and Venezuela have continuously been repeating these days: "But the use of Cuban doctors to exert political control is not widely known, according to the doctors. The practice unfavorably shows a sweeping exchange that allegedly benefits all Venezuelans, regardless of their political preferences”, The NYT says.

It’s no surprise, then, that immediately after the report was published, US President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, posted a commentary on the said article on Twitter, in which he claimed:

"It is not surprising that Maduro and his Cuban bosses have lied and killed to usurp democracy and steal the wealth of the Venezuelan people”, Bolton said. "This is a clear example of how Maduro ignores people’s needs and makes the situation worse for his personal gain”, he added.

Coincidentally, the new lie of The New York Times is published several weeks after Cuba rejected the legislation introduced by senators Robert Menéndez and Marco Rubio, who own a broad record of anti-Cuban campaigns and actions to reactivate the Cuban Medical Professional Parole Program. The initiative, presented at Capitol, seeks to reactivate the US brain-drain against physicians of the island.

It wouldn’t be strange at all that the sources used by The New York Times form part of the "reactivation" of a program designed to encourage the Cuban doctors, who collaborate in third countries, to desert from their missions. But, the editors of the “prestigious” newspaper, apparently, ignore that their testimonies have no validity, if we take into account that their probable admission in the United States is conditioned by their good services to the campaign of lies against Cuba.

It’s the migratory policy of truth or visa. As The York Times report points out, one of the witnesses is "one of the few doctors interviewed who have returned to their profession with a small practice in Ecuador".

As we already said in a previous commentary, the editorial policy of The New York Times has never been oblivious to the fake news campaign launched in U.S. against Venezuela.

Translated by Jorge Mesa Benjamin / CubaSi Translation Staff