International News from QVenezuela – Venezuela ratified today its claim to the American company Twitter after thousands of accounts belonging to ministers and pro-government media and supporters were simultaneously suspended Wednesday.
The Minister of Communication and Information, Dercy Rodriguez, reported that it was a massive political attack and made a formal complaint to Twitter, still unanswered.
In addition to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Rodriguez, at least two other ministers, state media, journalists and personalities were attacked.
According to reports, the account of Venezuelan President lost 6,500 followers.
The government says the accounts of a pro-government newspapers and some media, and Venezuela’s immigration authority were also suspended, along with the accounts of other officials and government agencies.
his is a typical Maduro ploy: discredit others while making himself out to be the victim of plots by the sinister forces of the outside world. He then uses the persecution as an excuse to clamp down on dissidents, and denounces his persecuters, making himself out to be a strongman to rally support from Venezuelans. Chavez used the same strategy, but not quite as frequently and absurdly as Maduro. I don’t know if this is paying off for Maduro, as he doesn’t have Chavez’s charisma or following. To the rest of the world, he appears insane, but the rest of the world is not his real concern. With Venezuela’s oil reserves, he really doesn’t have to worry about the rest of the world, as long as he can avoid an invasion and find sources for the foreign products needed by Venezuela’s people. My guess is that he is stashing money away in the Caimans or elsewhere, as he is unlikely to be re-elected in five years.