CARACAS - The scandal, the striking or noisy is what generates the most attention in the 2.0 universe. The most serious investigations register, at least, 70% of garbage in the contents on the Internet. On the web it is easier to tell lies than truth.
Following the example of certain politicians, portals and influencers are dedicated to blackmailing businessmen by accusing them of corruption. If they pay they don't even touch them. If they get tough they attack them until they give up. They are extortion professionals. They invent campaigns full of fake news and stop at nothing. They do not care, Business is business.
One of the main characteristics of this political war that the country is experiencing is that the battles are fought fundamentally on the networks. In digital scenarios, in abundant videos and WhatsApp channels, it can be seen not only how insensitive politicians are, but also how the anti-corruption discourse has degenerated into extortion.
While the ruling party manages the largest database in the country, the country card, the extremist opposition attacks with all its might from social networks, the only means of communication that is not subject to the legal limitations imposed by the government.
Everyone shoots from where they feel stronger. While the government has daily programs in the traditional media, where the great majority are, the radical opposition is concentrated on Twitter and WhatsApp, inhabited almost exclusively by the middle class.
Unlike radio or television where you must be careful what you say, there are no limits on the networks. According to legal provisions in the audiovisual media, it is not possible to call for a foreign intervention or a coup d'etat to take place. On the web, on the other hand, one can speak of a "dictatorship" or describe any money laundering official or drug trafficker without having to prove anything.
What at first glance looks like an unequal fight, less than 25% of the population in Venezuela has access to the internet, in practice ends up being the opposite. The web is the ideal setting to generate false news and to launch smear campaigns.
The scandal, the striking or noisy is what generates the most attention in the 2.0 universe. The most serious investigations register, at least, 70% of garbage in the contents on the Internet. On the web it is easier to tell lies than truths. The emotional weighs much more than the rational and that helps to deceive more easily.
These characteristics of the networks have allowed professional institutions to impose a discourse full of aggressiveness and violence that works with absolute effectiveness in the most radicalized sectors of politics in Venezuela.
Some documents have been leaked that explain the structure of the ruling party in the networks. The entire structure of the PSUV party is instructed to manage a high number of accounts that repeat what is said on the national network or on VTV. It is possible to visualize daily as in twitter and facebook, from the official accounts, trending topics are positioned, discursive lines that come out live and direct from presidential palace in Miraflores.
In the case of the opposition, there is an enormous variety of portals and influencers that do not stop calling for force exits. The most important institution in the radical world is the National Communications Commission, financed until a few days ago, with the funds managed by the interim government.
At one time the most powerful structure was the Panampost. A portal located in the United States and with several replicas in Latin America. This portal had high technology and had access to confidential information from US security agencies. Its financing came from conservative groups in the area, interested in combating the rise of communism.
From a political point of view, Panampost was square with the radical opposition linked to "The Iron Lady" María Corina Machado. Due to the type of harmful material that the portal published, its owners ended up selling it. Currently Panampost is dedicated to the dissemination of Fake News against a select group of businessmen and to rant against Juan Guaidó and his people for the cases of Monomeros and Citgo.
Even though it could not be proven, it was circulated on the networks that the main shareholder of this medium was the Venezuelan banker Nelson Mezerhane.
8 MILLION MONTHLY BUDGET
The control of Venezuela's assets abroad, plus the multimillion-dollar donations and collections, allowed the opposition linked to Juan Guaidó to build a devastating communications network that has served as its main political weapon.
Through the National Communications Commission, a very effective propaganda has been developed that has managed to sell the image of Maduro, throughout the planet, as a usurper, capable of committing the worst misdeeds to stay in power.
Likewise, this expensive digital communication laboratory has served to discredit the moderate opposition, which they call collaborationist. Massifying labels have discredited those who compete for the opposition leadership against the so-called G4. While the scorpions and sellers are presented as submissive to the government, Guaidó and Leopoldo López represent the heroic resistance of the Venezuelan people.
These two propaganda laboratories have had the collaboration of other complicit portals. According to official spokesmen, Armandoinfo.com, El Cocuyo Effect, Punto de Corte, AlbertoNews and La Patilla, among others, are part of a communication structure financed from abroad. These digital media work with money that comes mostly from organizations linked to the Republican Party and conservative governments in Europe.
The problem is not that there are media or journalists who work for the government or the opposition. In Venezuela, a mutation has developed from political denunciation to extortion. The example was given by the deputies of the Comptroller Commission of the AN 2015 (National Assembly). A group of them were dedicated to charging Venezuelan businessmen, high sums in dollars for issuing certified documentation to be used in the United States and thus avoid any sanction.
These letters of good conduct served to prevent their bearers from being included on the OFAC or Clinton list. The Asset Prevention Office was created to prevent money laundering in the US. Those who enter it are sanctioned and their assets are confiscated by the courts of this country.
THE ANTI-CORRUPTION MASK
Corruption has degenerated political communication on the networks. Hidden behind political discourse, those who are known to have resources are attacked. From confidential or public data, false or tendentious news is constructed that later becomes smear campaigns.
In the business world there is a list circulating against a group of well-known communicators or influencers who are dedicated to the business of extortion. Some specialize in writing complete books, others in running portals dedicated to hunting down the corrupt.
Covered in a supposed ethical discourse, they blackmail those who refuse to pay what they ask for. If they do not give in to blackmail, they appear on the networks labeled as money launderers or corrupt. They fall on them from all sides. Their victims are subjected to public smear campaigns. The best known of these characters are Leocenis García (Seguros y Banca and albertonews), Juan Carlos Zapata (Alnavio) Miguel Salazar (Verdades de Miguel) and Patricia Poleo (Factores de Poder).
In another category are Ibéyise Pacheco who works directly for Leopoldo Lopez, Maibort Petit who plays key with Casto Ocando, Alek Boyd, Nelson Lara and Sebastiana Barraez. But, when it comes to extortion professionals, no one is equal to Mrs. Antonieta Jurado, wife of Miguel Henrique Otero, who used the newspaper El Nacional for his shady deals and who for a long time lived off of money he helped steal from Corpoelec years ago.
In the extortion business, anything goes. There are also runs against banks as well as smear campaigns against important companies. It does not matter the family damage or how the reputation of those who are victims of this game of lies and dark interests is affected. Nor the money or jobs that are lost. They do not care about the damage being done to the country's economy. The worst thing is that there is no legislation or way to prove when the extortion is taking place.