Mainstream media use starving Venezuelan children for political photo op
Mainstream media are using photos of starving Venezuelan children to help Brazil’s new president attack his Right-leaning predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro.
Left-wing President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, an ex-convict who assumed office on January 1st, has been fighting an uphill battle for legitimacy as many Brazilians accuse him of stealing the election from Bolsonaro.
Earlier this month on January 8th, a replicate protest of January 6th broke out in Brazil’s capital of Brasília. Lula, who some officials report knew about the protest beforehand, has used the demonstration as a pretext to jail thousands of Bolsonaro supporters and demonize Right-leaning Brazilians with the dutiful help of global corporate media.
Now those media outlets are helping Lula find fodder for a new attack, this time involving starving children. News corporations are displaying photos of emaciated people on stretchers and suggesting a Bolsonaro-led genocide.
“Brazil's ministry of health has declared a medical emergency in the Yanomami territory, the country's largest indigenous reservation bordering Venezuela, following reports of children dying of malnutrition and other diseases caused by illegal gold mining,” reported Reuters Sunday.
“In four years of Bolsonaro's presidency, 570 Yanomami children died of curable diseases, mainly malnutrition but also malaria, diarrhea and malformations caused by mercury used by wildcat gold miners,” continued the news wire, adding that Lula is benevolently visiting the Yanomami.
"More than a humanitarian crisis, what I saw in Roraima was genocide: a premeditated crime against the Yanomami, committed by a government insensitive to suffering," Lula said on Twitter.
But neither Lula nor his allies in the media are disclosing that the starving children are from Venezuela, headed by dictator and Lula’s close ally Nicolás Maduro, who come to Brazil seeking nourishment and shelter every month.
Investigative journalist Oswaldo Eustáquio explains that the emaciated people in the photos “are Venezuelan indigenous people who asked for help from their relatives on the prosperous side of the continent, Brazil.”
“The narrative that Brazilian indigenous people suffered a genocide is false," Eustáquio writes. “The truth is that under the Chavista dictatorship commanded by Maduro, most of the Venezuelan population is starving and has lost up to 25% of its weight. This is even worse for the indigenous peoples of that country.”
Under Bolsonaro, Eustáquio adds, Brazilian indigenous tribes such as the Povo Pareci and the Suruí flourished.
Furthermore, the journalist notes that over 300,000 foreign NGOs, “which operate in the Amazon as true militias,” “shield” indigenous territories from the State so they can be exploited and weaponized when necessary.
The Gateway Pundit notes that at least The Guardian has so far removed the photo of starving Venezuelans, though the attacks on Bolsonaro and support for Lula remain.
