{"id":3676,"date":"2020-04-01T06:13:50","date_gmt":"2020-04-01T06:13:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vricmonitor.org\/combatting-covid-19-propaganda-in-latin-america\/"},"modified":"2024-08-21T14:52:55","modified_gmt":"2024-08-21T14:52:55","slug":"combatting-covid-19-propaganda-in-latin-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vric.securefreesociety.org\/es\/combatting-covid-19-propaganda-in-latin-america\/","title":{"rendered":"COMBATTING COVID-19 PROPAGANDA IN LATIN AMERICA"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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In March, the world woke up to the global health pandemic that is COVID-19. While the public embraces new mitigation measures to slow the spread of the virus, most governments are in a\u00a0war against an \u201cinvisible enemy\u201d<\/em> that is stressing the public health infrastructure in their countries. China, however, is fighting another war, one laced with lies, half truths, and aggressive propaganda against a very visible enemy to the People\u2019s Republic of China (PRC) \u2013 the United States of America.\u00a0<\/p>

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Not since two Chinese colonels warned in 1999 that the PRC was engaged in \u201cUnrestricted Warfare\u201d<\/em> against America has the U.S. government been on alert to the threat posed by China\u2019s influence worldwide. In Latin America, this influence is shaped by its economic engagement, lending the region upwards of $142 billion in Chinese policy bank loans since 2007. Almost half of these loans went to the now bankrupt Maduro regime of Venezuela, who has joined other VRIC allies in accusing the U.S. of manipulating the virus as a biowarfare weapon.<\/p>

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This belligerent behavior is followed by medical missions from China and Cuba, who are sending doctors, medical supplies, and PPE to various countries in its geopolitical orbit. Even Chinese philanthropist Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba and one of China\u2019s wealthiest citizens, is donating 2 million masks to 24 countries in Latin America.\u00a0<\/p><\/div>

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The\u00a0massive public relations effort by China is aimed at erasing the stigma it earned allowing the virus to spread around the world after\u00a0covering it up. The PRC wants to convince Latin America that it\u2019s part of the solution in dealing with COVID-19 and not the source of the problem. It\u2019s debatable whether this will work given that China\u2019s \u201ccommodities super cycle\u201d<\/em> ended several years ago and they have rolled back loans to Latin America for the fourth consecutive year. But China is not alone. Russia, Iran, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela are all using their state-controlled media to propagate China\u2019s talking points about COVID-19 in Spanish, Portuguese, and other native languages in Latin America, including boosting conspiracy theories that the virus originated in the United States.\u00a0<\/p>

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Meanwhile, Venezuela and Iran are capitalizing on the COVID-19 pandemic to insert a victimization narrative seeking support from the IMF and denouncing U.S. maximum pressure against its regimes while asking for sanctions relief during the public health crisis. Neither country has employed effective mitigation measures to slow the spread of the coronavirus but each has used the opportunity to implement countrywide crackdowns in the name of a quarantine or national lockdown.<\/p>

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Unfortunately, even U.S. allies, such as the European Union, have joined the call to end sanctions on Venezuela and Iran, while\u00a0Peru,\u00a0Bolivia, and others ultimately succumbed to the medical diplomacy of China and Cuba.<\/p>

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Havana and Beijing have long standing biotechnology cooperation, including recent joint biopharmaceutical ventures\u00a0created\u00a0during the COVID-19 pandemic. The two regimes are determined to win\u00a0global\u00a0public opinion through aggressive outreach, propaganda, and public diplomacy. Yet, as the\u00a0U.S.\u00a0starts to understand the nature of this novel coronavirus,\u00a0the VRIC sets its sights on Latin America as the next frontier in the propaganda \u201cwar within the war\u201d<\/em> around\u00a0the COVID-19 pandemic.\u00a0<\/p>

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