In this episode of the Cuba Analysis Podcast, Helen Yaffe and Nina Blodau talk to Alan MacLeod about the Trump administration’s use of propaganda, misinformation and psychological warfare to facilitate regime change in Cuba and Venezuela. MacLeod is a researcher and investigative journalist for MintPress News, and author of ‘Bad News from Venezuela: 20 Years of Fake News and Misreporting’, based on his PhD thesis.
Through interviewing the western journalists posted in Caracas, MacLeod’s research showed that they acted as ‘ideological foot soldiers’ for US imperialism, deliberately manufacturing consent for regime change. MacLeod tells us how one journalist, who he names in the podcast, admitted to planting fake news about Venezuela, describing himself as ‘mercenary for hire’. He traces how this playbook of distortion, exemplified in propaganda against Cuba and Venezuela, creates a false reality for the general public, one where fake narratives about ‘narco-states’ and ‘authoritarian dictatorships’ counter the hard evidence from institutions like the United Nations.
The conversation connects the dots between the role of individual journalists, media platforms, think tanks, US government funding and Miami-based opposition leaders, revealing a coordinated campaign aimed at overthrowing sovereign governments. He describes the merging in Southern Florida of the right-wing opponents of the Cuban and Venezuelan revolutionary states who receive generous funding under regime change programmes. We discuss the sordid trajectory of the opposition leaders, people such as María Corina Machado from Venezuela, and Cuban American politicians Marco Rubio, and María Elvira Salazar, who promote violence and US intervention. MacLeod shows how information warfare lays the groundwork for economic and military aggression.
This episode is a masterclass in media deconstruction and a vital tool for anyone seeking to understand the battle over truth and sovereignty in Latin America. It is also a stirring appeal for genuine international solidarity.
