Crisis in Venezuela And The Lack Of Media Coverage

What had been a slow-motion unraveling that had stretched out over many years went full speed ahead all of a sudden.

What we have this is no longer the Venezuela story you thought you understood.

Throughout last night, panicked people told their stories of state-sponsoredparamilitaries onmotorcyclesroaming middle class neighborhoods, shooting at people and  storming into apartment buildings, shooting at anyone who seemed like he might be protesting.

People continue to be arrested merely for protesting, and a long established local Human Rights NGO makes an urgent plea for an investigation into widespread reports of torture of detainees. There are now dozens of serious human right abuses: National Guardsmen shootingtear gas canisters directly into residential buildings. Here are videos of soldiers shootingcivilians on the street.

And that’s just what came out in real time, over Twitter and YouTube, before any real investigation is carried out. Online media is next, a city of645,000 inhabitants has been taken off the internet amid mounting repression, and this blog itself has been the object of a Facebook “block” campaign.

What has been reported and videoed  were not “street clashes”, but are a state-hatched offensive to suppress and terrorize its opponents.

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After the major crackdown on the streets of large (and small) Venezuelan cities last night, one would expect some kind of response in the major international news outlets this morning. 

As of Sunday morning, none of the major networks had a story.