An Open-Letter to Mr Goff-

I truly hope this finds you well. I would like to start by saying that I share your desire to avoid a U.S military intervention in Venezuela. And we share a very valid mistrust in the history of American-led regime change, as well as a horror of the history of the United States in LAtin America in general.

But I write to you from the Venezuelan border in Colombia and I feel it is my moral duty to inform you that you are grossly mistaken about the situation in Venezuela.

I have been reporting on the Venezuelan immigration crisis for six months from the ground. And during that time have spoken with countless Venezuelans. I also work closely with Venezuelan journalists in Caracas.

To call Nicolas Maduro anything but a dictator is not only incorrect, it is morally reprehensible.

I understand that as you wrote this from your mac-book pro in Los Angeles or wherever, thousands of miles away you did so in good faith. And I understand that the irresponsible journalism outlets who parrot regime propaganda are the easiest source to back up arguments against a very unstable Trump administration.

Maduro is not “democratically elected”, despite the open-letters from a few organizations who failed to do their homework.

Even if we ignore U.N accusations that the most recent election was widely rigged, Maduro simply imprisoned the majority of opposition leaders in 2017.

He then prevented his only viable challenger, Henrique Capriles Radonski from running against him. The elections were widely criticized by the International Community as invalid.

During this time he also dissolved the National Assembly because he found it inconvenient. He has stacked the entire judicial branch with cronies in what many experts have called a “judicial coupe”.

He censors his media, arrests dissidents, and his paramilitary group the “Colectivos” routinely disappear and intimidate opposition members as well as ordinary protestors.

And all of this is not even speaking of the incredibly brutal conditions that his forces used to put down mass protests in 2014 and 2017.

And while I realize that it might not be convenient for you to come here and speak to the Venezuelans in person, I urge you to do so before repeating unfounded propaganda from the dictator Maduro.

You mention that when propaganda creates clicks, it is reinforced. I find this to be a great description of you bizarre and unfounded assertions that the opposition wants to oppress people of color in Venezuela.

But I agree that it is an effective, if unfounded, propaganda. If you can paint the oppressed people as the oppressors then perhaps you can change the dynamic.

That is certainly the intention of Jorge Arrazea, Minister of Foreign Relations is intending to do when he spreads these ridiculous stories to media outlets desperate for attention and ammunition against neo-liberalism.

None of this is to even mention the hundreds and hundreds of Venezuelans I have spoken with personally; a national guard member who saw two comrades shot because they tried to desert, an activist in the Guarimbas in 2017 in Caracas had friends killled, raped, and imprisoned FAES, Maduro’s special police force. The hundreds of immigrants who speak of complete lawlessness outside of Caracas. The young woman who was accosted by guerillas here near the border and raped for passage as they bragged about how much money they made because Maduro can’t control this area of the country.

Two journalists form Caracas whom I met here in Cucuta, whom have has colleagues arrested and charged with “espionage”.

Or the fact that I have personally seen with my own eyes a Colectivo member shoot a youth of maybe 16 or 17 years old who was trying to scrap the burnt humanitarian aid trucks for parts to sell on the Simon Bolivar Bridge into Venezuela.

These are the people that you are demonizing when you paint everyone who wants Maduro gone (which despite propaganda from Venezuela Analysis, a state-run and financed propaganda machine) is the vast majority of Venezuelans.

Your intentions seem good Mr Roth. And I am happy to assume that this was an oversight. But I stand by the words of A.O.C. If anything I would say that they are too mild.

I invite you to join me here. I invite you to speak to these people you baselessly call racist oppressors. They are starving. They are suffering from chronic illnesses due to a completely non-functional medial system, they are subject to violence both from criminals and from an incredibly violent regime. And they desperately ask for international support in returning Democracy to Venezuela.

One can oppose Military Intervention without spreading the baseless propaganda of the Maduro regime. And while it might not call as much attention to your writing as attacking a rising political star, it is the moral thing to do.

You continue to enjoy an ally from us in presenting facts as they truly are as well a desire to see an end to destructive American policy in Latin America

Sincerely,

All of us actually doing journalism on the ground.