The Left's Venezuelan Blind Spot

Unfortunately, supporters of the Chavez/Maduro government appear to be marooned in 2002, when a right-wing coup temporarily overthrew the then president Hugo Chavez. They are still of the belief that the media in Venezuela is overwhelmingly right wing and that the government is surrounded by hostile forces seeking to undermine the socialist revolution. In reality, it is the Venezuela state which is now the greatest threat to freedom and prosperity. In 2013 the last remaining independent television station in Venezuela was sold to an ally of the president and the government now has foreign news broadcasters and Twitter in its sights, pulling a Colombian news channel NTN24 off the air last week because it was providing too much coverage of the student protests. Maduro, who doesn’t appear to be particularly bright, has absurdly asked authorities to investigate the disappearance of 6,000 of his 1.4 million Twitter followers, branding it a “massive attack” by the “international right wing”.