Politics

A Storm in a Tweet Cup?!

Francisco Toro
A patient who may or may not have been a high ranking military officer who may or may not have been shot inside or outside Fuerte Tiuna may or may not have been rushed here. Or not.
A patient who may or may not have been a high ranking military officer either was or was not shot inside or outside Fuerte Tiuna and later was or wasn’t rushed here. Or maybe not.

So who was the mystery, high-ranking patient whose supposed emergency transfer to Caracas’s Military Hospital was so secret it hasn’t even been denied yet? Was there an actual gun fight in Fuerte Tiuna? Are these all just crazy rumors? A G2 Barium Meal Test? A bad case of Chinese Whispers? Started by the actual Chinese?

There is no way to tell. What we do know is that in the zero-transparency, zero-accountability, all-propaganda-no-information style public sphere that chavismo has pioneered, these kinds of speculative outbreaks are inevitable. And in the age of Twitter, there ain’t nothing CESPPA can do about that…

The one thing we’re sure of is that if something really serious went down, the State Media will be the last to tell us. Under those circumstances, is it any wonder rumors run wild?

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