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Judi Lynn

(160,211 posts)
Sun May 5, 2019, 08:54 PM May 2019

Gordon Campbell on collective punishment in Venezuela

Gordon Campbell on collective punishment in Venezuela
Monday, 6 May 2019, 12:00 pm
Column: Gordon Campbell

Yemen, Venezuela, Iran, Gaza… beyond the particulars of their suffering, each of these countries currently share one thing in common: their ordinary citizens are being subjected to collective punishment, in order to bring about regime change. In each case, a powerful external country (Saudi Arabia, the US, Israel) is intent on making the life of ordinary citizens so utterly miserable that they will turn against their current leadership.

Under international law, collective punishment is a war crime. Punishing entire communities for the actions of a few militants (or for the decisions taken by a few leaders) is a Nazi-era practice that the UN has done its best to eliminate. It has failed to do so. That’s partly because modern media coverage is structured to depict the effects and not the causes of war crimes – and so, unsurprisingly, the criminals involved tend to get away scot free.

We see this approach being played out every night on news bulletins concerning the world’s trouble spots. Brevity and impact are the name of the game. We will be told something awful has happened somewhere, and the screen/soundtrack will then be filled with explosions and naked emotions aplenty – grief and anger or (preferably) both at once. If there’s an interview with a local stringer, the news anchors will routinely suggest that city X, country Y or refugee camp Z seems to have degenerated into “chaos”. This is helpful because chaos by definition, defies rational explanation. Clashes are occurring. Emotions are running high. There are chaotic scenes right now in downtown... Caracas?

Caracas it was, last week. The recent news from Venezuela was presented spectacularly devoid of historical or social context as to why a coup attempt was (a) occurring and also (b) failing just as spectacularly - thereby spoiling the narrative that had been plonked down onto Venezuela, regardless. Self-declared president Juan Guiado and his followers were hailed as the self-declared goodies (they certainly talked a lot about freedom) while Nicolas Maduro and the armed forces were treated as the bad guys clinging on to power.

More:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL1905/S00024/gordon-campbell-on-collective-punishment-in-venezuela.htm

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