Alonso maintains that the coup is part of a “new imperial strategy of interference for the elimination of governments not to its liking.” The strategy includes “provoked demonstrations; concerted and multiple media manipulations; and well-worn calls to respect the human rights of those who are aggressive and violent, seeking international condemnation and armed intervention.” Thus we have seen in recent days “provocative and condemning headlines and dramatic images of Venezuela” as well as “images of chaos, of violent protestors as victims, and anathemas against the Venezuelan government.” The campaign is accompanied by “a well-financed and concerted strategy through the social networks to inflame passions, generate anxiety, and spread lies. Tweets circulate, one after another, riddled with false photos of the Venezuelan situation, snapshots whose true origins are in recent demonstrations and confrontations in Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, Egypt, or Chile.”
Alonso asserts that there is no limit to the manipulations and lies. Anything is valid for those who attempt to overthrow a government that is not pleasing to the United States or to the Venezuelan oligarchy. He cites the political scientist Juan Carlos Monedero, who maintains that the media focus on Venezuela doesn’t have anything to do with violence in Venezuela; it has to do with the fact that the country is rich in petroleum, and its government does not submit to the mandates of the North.
Alonso believes that the response to the imperial counteroffensive to the Latin American quest for true sovereignty must take many forms, and it must include the emergence of a new media of communication in service of the people.
Randy Alonso Falcón is a prominent journalist, perhaps the most well-known, in Cuba. He is director of La Mesa Redonda (The Roundtable), a Cuban television news discussion program, and Cubadebate, a Cuban news Website. La Mesa Redonda discusses major international and national events and issues. It usually has three or four guests, who are journalists, scholars and specialists, each of whom is given time to develop an explanation. Alonso regularly moderates the program, and he is known for his careful listening, his relevant questions, and his succinct introductory and concluding comments.
Born in the western province of Pinar del Rio, an isolated region before the triumph of the revolution, Alonso has been formed by the Cuban Revolution. He is not on the payroll of the giant corporations that own the major international news media. He is a product of the thirst of the peoples of the world for social justice, and he has cast his lot with a style of journalism in which journalistic ethics and integrity are bound to the needs of the humble, and not the interests of the rich.
Key words: Third World, revolution, colonialism, neocolonialism, imperialism, democracy, national liberation, sovereignty, self-determination, socialism, Marxism, Leninism, Cuba, Latin America, world-system, world-economy, development, underdevelopment, colonial, neocolonial, blog Third World perspective, Venezuela, mass media, Randy Alonso