The Latin American Report # 666: Claims and facts

Yesterday, victims of a crude, grotesque disinformation operation carried out by a single individual widely branded already as a chronic and pathological liar, not a few Cubans approached an emblematic hotel in Havana to access a "monetary donation" announced by the aforementioned influencer, who regularly announces the "imminent fall" of the Cuban government. I write influencer, sadly, without quotation marks, because it is incredible the number of people who follow the Facebook channel of the so-called Ignacio Jiménez, and who, furthermore, fell for a hoax bigger than the universe, promising the delivery of 1,100 dollars to every Cuban at the doors of any hotel, courtesy of the world's largest technology companies, with all the operation coordinated by the infamous influencer, and by him alone.

I don't think I have seen such a crude nonsense in Cuba that entraps people so massively. Beyond the cognitive deficit at the popular level that the incident implies, it is clear to me that the authorities had not diagnosed the depth of the problem until yesterday, and perhaps that's why they did not warn people in time after days of successive announcements by that "Ignacio". I allude to this event at the start of this report because it is an excellent example of how, instead of moving closer, society on a global scale is actually moving further away, in fast mode, from the notion and practice of critical thinking. The ideal of an individual who knows how to manage the information they he/she receives, whether through a television channel or YouTube, an Instagram or Facebook post, a piece of reporting from a wire agency, or the propagandistic speech of their populist leader, is only fading. The distinction between a claim and a fact, between what is plausible or possible and what is proven, is becoming increasingly blurred. The so-called confirmation bias envelops a very representative number of people who, as I said in a recent post, throw themselves or are thrown into that thick void dominated by post-truth and disinformation.

El Pollo

Today I would like to ground this idea in light of new reports associated with Donald Trump's campaign against Venezuela, somehow dangerously linked to Cuba. Last Wednesday, The Dallas Express published a letter allegedly penned by Hugo Carvajal Barrios, alias "El Pollo", a former high-ranking Venezuelan military officer who served as head of the Military Intelligence Directorate with the rank of Major General under the former, late president Hugo Chávez. Since Barack Obama's first term, accusations that the Venezuelan high military command supported drug trafficking, with Carvajal as one of the accused, were already in the information market.

By that time, Chávez defended him in the following terms: "[Carvajal is accused] without any evidence ... of supporting drug trafficking, of practically leading a firing squad, of having ordered the killing of two Colombian military officers; [he] must be careful, and we must take great care of General Carvajal, because that accusation is a death sentence for [him]. [Carvajal] is a patriotic soldier who has risked his life on many occasions in the fulfillment of his mission, in defense of Venezuela's interests and of the Bolivarian Armed Forces." In the final days of 2011, Chávez relieved him as head of Venezuelan military intelligence. He assumed other relevant functions under his command and later under Maduro until he was appointed Consul General in Aruba in January 2014. He was arrested there on July 23 of that year following political pressure from the United States—he had open cases in several U.S. jurisdictions for drug trafficking in confluence with the defunct Colombian FARC—, although he was returned days later to Venezuela, where he was received with honors.

In 2019, amid the failed Guaidó plan to remove Maduro from Miraflores, Carvajal defected to the opposition ranks, supporting the U.S.-backed move, which led to his expulsion from the Army. Exiled in Spain, he was arrested by the authorities of the Iberian nation because he was circulated by Interpol for his pending debts with U.S. justice. After many comings and goings, including an escape within Spain, he arrived in the United States in July 2023. In June of this year, Carvajal pleaded guilty to the charges historically filed against him, as announced by the Trump-nominated United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York Jay Clayton. Among the most specific accusations against Carvajal is his alleged coordinating role in the departure of an aircraft in 2006 packed with 5.6 tons of cocaine bound for Mexico, where it was seized; the Venezuelan authorities at the time offered a different version, although I'm not ruling anything out.

The letter

After all this journey, let's talk about the letter from the three-star general Hugo Carvajal, addressed to none other than Donald Trump. The letter is nothing more than a text full of allegations, all plausible, but allegations nonetheless. Allegations that very specifically and directly serve to boost White House propaganda aimed at justifying the buildup near and against Venezuela, portraying the Maduro government as a terrorist organization called the Cartel of the Suns. According to Carvajal himself, the letter is written to demonstrate "why President Trump’s policies are not only correct, but absolutely necessary to the United States’ national security." One of the points that has bounced a lot around the media is his allegation that the plan "to weaponize drugs against the United States" through the so-called Cartel of the Suns "was suggested by the Cuban regime to Chávez in the mid-2000s[,] and has been successfully executed with help from FARC, ELN, Cuban operatives, and Hezbollah".

As expected, media outlets opposed to the Cuban political regime have "made a killing" with the allegation, presenting it as a fact. I am sure many of my students have already accepted it without subjecting it to verification, because as long as it corresponds with their dissenting position, there is no longer a need to demand the slightest proof. And yes, again, it is plausible or rational to think that Carvajal's allegations are true, but it is also clear that they point just as much to an information operation coordinated with the Trump administration as to a personal initiative seeking judicial favors from a president who very easily absolves from criminal responsibility those who are politically useful to him.

For journalist Daniel Lozano, of the conservative Spanish newspaper El Mundo, the letter from alias El Pollo is "impacting," because, in addition to "confirming facts already known about the Cartel of the Suns," it adds the novelty that "it was the Cubans who suggested the plan to flood [the United States] with cocaine." Thus, allegations are no longer allegations, but facts. Even a reputable agency like EFE says "Carvajal revealed," instead of "Carvajal alleged/denounced." Cuban authorities have reacted quickly, aware of the implications or potential functions the Carvajal letter could fulfill, especially before a Republican administration that constructs national security problems and objectives with very little and sometimes with nothing. Cuba "is not a drug-producing or transit country," said senior Cuban Interior Ministry officials, defending that the country has a "zero-tolerance policy" towards drug trafficking, which is even coordinated with the U.S. Coast Guard Service. Finally, regarding this entire narrative associated with the drug trafficking problem, I still cannot find where the political gain would be for Venezuela, let alone Cuba, in "weaponizing" drugs in the United States.

The latest in the textbook, plain psywar against Venezuela 👇

This is all for today’s report.