Venezuela denounces U.S.-based smear campaign against migrants

On Feb. 21, Venezuela’s Communication Minister, Alfred Nazareth, denounced a smear campaign generated by U.S.-based media and networks against Venezuelan migrants.

“Through posts paid for by the Voice of America, which is the White House’s spokesperson, as well as through a swarm of right-wing bots and influencers, it is intended to inoculate a dangerous matrix of public opinion in which Venezuelans are falsely linked to armed gangs operating in the United States,” he said.

The Bolivarian minister explained that the new wave of xenophobia is accompanied by an implicit threat against Venezuela that Washington began to shape since the time of the administration of President Barack Obama (2009-2017).

More specifically, Nazareth alluded to the defamatory messages posted on social networks that attempt to link Venezuelans with an alleged “Unpunished Rise of the Aragua Train.”

According to this smear campaign, this gang would be operating in several U.S. cities and would be composed mainly of Venezuelan gang members who carry out criminal actions ranging from cell phone theft to shootings.

In response to this, the Communications Minister recalled that Venezuelan migration was induced by the economic war that the United States has unleashed against the Bolivarian Revolution for more than a decade.

“However, neither the U.S. nor the Venezuelan far-right have done anything to alleviate the sanctions and allow the conditions for mass repatriation. The propaganda use of Venezuelan migration has a very clear objective: to justify any aggression against our country.”

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