Who says the BBC’s World Service, which is part-funded by the British government’s Foreign Office, is biased?
Today the radio service reported on 2 demonstrations in Venezuela – one pro-Maduro and one pro-Guaido – which took place in different areas of Caracas. The emphasis of the report, by Will Grant, was on the grievances of the anti-Maduro demonstrators. His opening remarks were to state the words that he heard the anti-government demonstrators use. Followed by the statement; “This was a day of opposing marches – demonstrations at two different ends of the city, reflecting two starkly different visions for Venezuela.”
We were left to assume the two demonstrations were equal in size. There was no reference to the numbers of demonstrators. Perhaps they were about the same size?. How would we know? Will Grant wasn’t going to tell us. But a few clues came out of his report.
“When the man they want to replace President Maduro arrived – Juan Guaido – he addressed them by megaphone,” reported Grant. A megaphone! Take a moment to think about that fact. He addressed this (massive?) demonstration with a hand-held megaphone.
Grant went on to report Guaido told the demonstration “He would travel the entire country with members of the National Assembly and bring people back from the provinces for another big demonstration in Caracas.” You might think that sounded like a leader trying to give hope to disappointed supporters at a small demonstration. If you thought that, your conclusion could only be reinforced by the words of one of Guaido’s supporters, Manolo, who told Will Grant,
“Every minimal advance is very, very important – every display of popular unity – every display in the streets. This dictatorship won’t be forced out overnight. It will take a lot of work. They are deeply entrenched in power. They have the police, the army, the guns. We are just working people. But although it might look small, it all adds up until we reach our objective of getting out from under this government.”
So even according to one of Guaido’s activist supporters the demonstration Will Grant was reporting “might look small”. It might look small indeed, but you would have to read carefully between the lines of the BBC report to glean that information.