Above photo: Activists gather in front of New York Times building. Wyatt Souers.
Activists denounce the New York Times for once again supporting regime change in Venezuela.
On August 9, as a part of an international call to action issued by ALBA Movimientos, the Simon Bolivar Institute, the Assembly of Caribbean Peoples, and the International Peoples’ Assembly to support Venezuela against US and mainstream media support for the attempted coup against President Nicolas Maduro, dozens of activists gathered in front of the New York Times building in New York City. The newspaper is notorious for backing undemocratic coups in Venezuela.
Since the election of Maduro, the New York Times has joined the US government and right-wing governments across Latin America in openly questioning Venezuela’s verifiable election results. “How do you topple a strongman?” reads a Times headline that openly calls for regime change. The subheading reads, ominously, “After another dubious election victory, Venezuela’s president, Nicolás Maduro, appears firmly in power. The only real potential threat, history shows, may come if his own security forces betray him.”
No US intervention in Venezuela!
All around the world, people are taking to the streets to take part in the @peoplesassembl_Day of Action for Democracy and Sovereignty!
As part of this movement, protesters gathered outside the headquarters of the New York Times! pic.twitter.com/UiDrYGNs47
— ANSWER Coalition (@answercoalition) August 9, 2024
“The only way that the New York Times and the CIA and the State Department were going to accept the outcome in the election in Venezuela was if the people voted against the Maduro government,” said ANSWER Coalition Executive Director Brian Becker. “But in fact, they voted for the Maduro government. And that’s why the New York Times and the other entities that are manufacturing opinions in the United States are supporters of a coup.”
There has seldom been an pro-imperialist coup that the New York Times hasn’t supported in Latin America. Adam Johnson chronicles the Times’ support for the 1954 coup in Guatemala, the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba, the 1964 coup in Brazil, the 1965 invasion of the Dominican Republic, among many others.
The activists highlighted that the US working class has no reason to support attempts at overthrowing a democratically elected government in Venezuela. Saidi Moseley of the Peoples Forum, who grew up in the Bronx, pointed to when then-Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez sent a large shipment of heating oil to South Bronx residents residing in the poorest Congressional district in the United States. “When [our] elected officials would rather us die in our frozen apartments because we don’t have money to pay for heat, Venezuela comes and gives us… over 100 gallons of oil so that we, the poor people in New York City can live with dignity,” Moseley said.