Caracas Chronicles

After Maduro’s electoral fraud on July 28th and the subsequent crackdown on dissenting voices, reporting the news from Venezuela has become increasingly complicated. Sources are not talking. Journalists are forced to work anonymously, sometimes in hiding, concealing their identities out of fear of government retaliation. Social media accounts have gone silent. Plus, vital parts of the news ecosystem, like X (formerly Twitter), have been blocked in the country. 

With so many stories to tell, more than a dozen independent media outlets formed a cooperative effort, the Venezuela Vota and #LaHoradeVenezuela initiatives (you may have seen that some of our pieces have been going out with either byline). The idea is to pool resources, remember that traditional media outlets in Venezuela—large newspapers, TV and radio networks—are under some form of control by the government, so independent media, mostly small online platforms (save for the analogue ElBusTV) have to get creative. 

Enter Operación Retuit, which features short social media videos that encapsulate the initiative’s reporting. The catch is that these videos are hosted by two AI avatars, La Chama and El Pana. You may remember how a year ago there were government sponsored campaigns that used AI anchors to spread fake news. Well, Venezuelan journalists are now using AI to report verified news and avoid persecution. Lo que es bueno para el pavo, es bueno para la pava.

It’s not like you can throw AI reporters in a jail cell at Helicoide—perhaps the one use case where editors and journalists would be happily replaced by robots.

Operación Retuit’s first episode was released today: 

It includes information about the government’s crackdown on post-electoral protests, which resulted in the death of at least 23 people and over 1,000 arbitrary detentions. Additionally, it features information about a potential digital summit between the presidents of Mexico, Colombia, and Brazil with Maduro as they attempt to find a diplomatic solution, and the impact the current crisis is having on the economy.

Venezuela Vota was created in the lead-up to the July 28th election as an effort by 12 media outlets to cross-publish news stories while also limiting the individual risks faced by journalists. Its first major accomplishment was a 36-hour-long electoral coverage live stream spearheaded by El Pitazo, which featured the work of 50 independent journalists, 30 reporters across Venezuela, and over 300 activists.

#LaHoradeVenezuela is an initiative coordinated by Connectas, to help give more reach to quality reporting from Venezuela, where over 50 digital media outlets have been blocked by the government.