Venezuela crisis: Univision team 'briefly detained' after Maduro interview

[ripcord]

Source: BBC

US broadcaster Univision says its team was briefly detained in the Venezuelan presidential palace where they had been interviewing President Nicolás Maduro.

"He got up after I showed him videos of young people eating out of a bin lorry," he said of the interview at the Miraflores palace in the capital, Caracas.

"What I told Nicolás Maduro is that millions of Venezuelans and many governments around the world don't consider him a legitimate president but a dictator."

During their detention, Mr Ramos and Univision Vice President María Martínez were kept for "a few minutes" in a separate room where the lights were turned off, the broadcaster said.

The Univision crew will be deported on Tuesday, Reuters news agency reports.

Read more: https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-latin-america-47366679

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I'm suprised they were released so quickly, confronting dictators with the truth is dangerous.

[ArizonaLib]

1. "They have...oil and they are in our back yard...

why aren't we at war with them?" - President Trump, 2017 security briefing, per Andrew McCabe

Going to be another stupid war. Instead of decreasing pollution, war on behalf of the oil economic royalists.

[Adrahil]

5. What does that have to do with Maduro's authoritarianism?

Ya know, both Trump AND Maduro can be bad guys. And in fact, both are.

[ArizonaLib]

6. It is not our responsibility to fix their country unless they attack us

We have our own piece of crap in office to deal with. We should mind our own business, reduce our military and put the money to healthcare and education. Build our own nation.

[Adrahil]

7. Still not addressing the issue.

I don't know about you, but I care about the collapse of a major nation in our neighborhood. I'm not in favor of a U.S. direct intervention, but detaining and seizing the property of a Univision crew is not justified and more evidence of an authoritarian government in Venezuela.

[ArizonaLib]

9. Detaining the crew is unjustified

But, for one, Maduro is not the worst dictator within military striking distance of us or our allies, so why focus on him? Oil! Another stupid war. Your post has no other point but to defend Trump's whim to militarily intervene and more often than not, central and south american nations collapse because we intervene on behalf of right wing causes. Read up on it. Anyone with any knowledge about the history of those countries knows it. Trump is unpopular and this little war he wants to start before the next election is not going to save his bad polling.

[GatoGordo]

10. Is it our responsibility to feed starving people?

They are eating out of garbage bins. Children are starving to death. People are dying of easily treatable disease. Yet Maduro insists that the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela does not exist. He won't allow food into his country because it makes him look bad. Makes his Socialist Utopia look like a failure.



Yes. Turn away. That works.

[ArizonaLib]

14. Of course we should send humanitarian aid - Trump isn't sending humanitarian aid - only the military

His concern is oil, not people. Republican opposition to feeding our own is also disgusting. They continue to cut food stamps, and unemployment benefits which economists agree serve as among the highest economic stimuli, behind direct government employment. These false pretenses like taking out Saddam Hussein because he was torturing and starving his own people merely provided cheaper oil for the oil companies and allowed the country to be looted, never bringing back even the low and unacceptable quality of life many had before our invasion. So Trump takes out Maduro and takes the oil he has said he wants. Is the kid in the picture finally going to be fed? The kid's best chances of getting fed is through humanitarian support and support for democratic reforms by their people. If the answer is not that simple, we, including the media, should be discussing the most humane way to solve their people's humanitarian problems, not just going back and forth on military action on Maduro. Our allies agree that Maduro is not democratically legitimate, but they also oppose the type of primarily military action President Naranja is talking about.

[GatoGordo]

16. Have you picked up a newspaper recently?

THERE IS NO OIL INFRASTRUCTURE WORTH STEALING.

[ArizonaLib]

17. Trump is an idiot - if the oil companies tell him to do it, he will

regardless of any benefit, rationality or cost. If you could explain to me why he does what he does, more power to you. He was the one who said 'They have the oil...why aren't we at war with them?'

Andrew McCabe documented it. Maybe your issue is Andrew McCabe's account of that 2017 briefing.

[ArizonaLib]

18. Here you go!

Headline: Venezuela's oil exports drop 40 percent after U.S. sanctions - data


Read more: https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-venezuela-politics-oil/venezuelas-oil-exports-drop-40-percent-after-u-s-sanctions-data-idUKKCN1QH2PD?rpc=401&

[ArizonaLib]

2. Increasing debt before war bullying is part of the Republican brand

Bunch of draft dodgers with personal ties to oil companies and foreign dictators.

[Bacchus4.0]

3. Here is video that upset Maduro apparently

Link to tweet

[MRubio]

4. Powerful stuff......

......in a country with a climate that allows planting year-round, abundant fresh water, generally reliable rainfall half the year, millions upon millions of hectars of arable soil, and yet we're planting perhaps 5% of what we once planted as there is little seed, fertilizer, urea, herbicide, insecticide, functioning farm equipment, spare parts, tires and a legal system that protects private property.

The scene in that video is happening all over the country. The only shocking thing about the video is that there's still a functioning garbage truck and workers willing to man it.

[McKim]

8. I am glad that Univision was asked to leave

I think it was appropriate that Univision was asked to leave. They had become part of the US propaganda campaign to oust Maduro. They were no longer a legitimate news organization in this context.

[GatoGordo]

11. Who do you think offer legitimate news of what is going on in Venezuela?

You must trust some news source.

WHO?

[ArizonaLib]

13. I agree

I believe they are journalists first and foremost. If Maduro felt threatened by them, he would have taken more action than just deporting them.

[EX500rider]

12. Well yeah, telling the truth, OMG, they have to go! nt

[MRubio]

15. Jorge Ramos: The Dictator of Venezuela Earns His Title

"The day before I had recorded on my cellphone three young men looking for food on the back of a garbage truck in a poor neighborhood minutes away from the presidential palace. I showed those images to Mr. Maduro. Each frame contradicted his narrative of a prosperous and progressive Venezuela 20 years after the revolution. That’s when he broke.

About 17 minutes into the interview, Mr. Maduro stood up, comically tried to block the images on my iPad and declared that the interview was over. “That’s what dictators do,” I told him.

A few seconds after Mr. Maduro left, Mr. Rodríguez, the communications minister, told me that his government had not authorized the interview and he ordered his security agents to confiscate my team’s four cameras and other equipment and the video cards on which we had recorded the conversation.

Somebody shouted to take me out of the presidential palace immediately, but instead two security agents escorted me to a little room where they ordered me to give them my cellphone and its password. They were concerned that I had recorded the audio of the interview and they didn’t want any leaks. But I refused."

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/27/opinion/jorge-ramos-venezuela.html