"The
smart way to keep people passive and obedient is to strictly limit
the spectrum of acceptable opinion, but allow very lively debate
within that spectrum." – Noam Chomsky
By
Manmeet Sahni
Part
5 - Questionable Statistics
Moreover,
the figures supporting Paez's argument in the Wall Street Journal
simply don't add up. Joe Emersberger breaks them down in the Green
Left Weekly: "According to a Colombian university study of
Venezuelan migration to Colombia, it averaged about 47,000 per year
from 2011–2014, then increased to 80,000 per year in 2015–16.
"U.S.
government data show migration from Venezuela to the United States
increasing from about 7,000 per year before 2013 to 28,000 per year
by 2015, including Venezuelans who have entered without
authorization.
"Between
2000 to 2013, the United States was the destination for about 30
percent of Venezuelan-born people who left to live abroad, according
to the World Bank figures.
"If
the Colombian university study and U.S. government data are accurate,
then the United States has been the destination for about 20 percent
of Venezuelan migrants after 2013. That would mean about 140,000
Venezuelans per year were leaving to live abroad by 2016.
"That
is not remotely comparable to the 5 million Syrians who fled the
country in the first five years following the civil war – and that
doesn't include over a million per year who fled their homes inside
Syria (the internally displaced)."
Western
media continue to dismiss the May 20 elections as a farce, despite
the fact they will be overseen by international experts and
organizations – including the African Union, the Caribbean
Community and the Latin American Council on Electoral Experts (CEELA)
– and involve one of the most technologically sophisticated voting
systems in the world.
With
just days to go until Venezuela chooses its next president,
luminaries across the continent are rightly petitioning to fight such
media bias and calling instead for "balanced information that
allows us to understand the complexity of the situation in
Venezuela."
***
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