On 20 September, protesters gathered outside the London offices of the Guardian, to demand an end to its hostile media blitz against Venezuela.
In the build up to, and since the Venezuelan presidential election on 28 July, The Guardian and its sister newspaper The Observer have churned out a steady stream of hostile coverage calling into question the result which saw the re-election of socialist party candidate Nicolas Maduro.
The Guardian’s Latin America correspondent Tom Phillips produced over 30 articles on Venezuela’s election in a single month, constantly repeating the lie that the election was rigged, in order to soften up public opinion to accept more sanctions and intervention (see ‘In defence of the Bolivarian revolution’ on our website).
Friends and supporters of the RCG and Rock around the Blockade spoke outside the Guardian exposing its role as a mouthpiece of the British ruling class, all the more dangerous for its supposedly progressive garb. They highlighted the Bolivarian Revolution’s achievements such as free healthcare and education for all Venezuelans, and over four million social housing units constructed since 2011 in spite of deadly US, EU and British sanctions which have devastated the country’s economy. Over $1bn of Venezuela’s sovereign gold reserves have been illegally confiscated by the Bank of England, which refused to release them even in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic to allow Venezuela to purchase urgently needed medicines.
We say: hands off Venezuela! Victory to the Venezuelan masses against imperialism! No more British media lies!
