It
might seem cavalier for an academically credentialed anthropologist
to assert political influence on the population he is supposed to be
studying; however, Goette-Luciak’s activities fit within a long
tradition.
by
Max Blumenthal
Part
6 - Selective stories from the front lines
In his
interview with Edge of Adventure, Goette-Luciak cited the killing of
Angel Gahona — a reporter he described as his “neighbor” in the
city of Bluefields in southeastern Nicaragua — as his inspiration
for moving into the field of journalism.
Gahona
was killed while delivering a Facebook live report during an
anti-government protest. He was shot while filming a bank that had
been looted, and unidentified men could be seen in the shadows of the
bank moments before Gahona was hit. This prompted some observers to
allege that he was killed by professional criminals for filming them
while they took advantage of the chaos to rob a bank.
Though
the government arrested two suspects in the killing, Gahona’s
family blamed the national police for deliberately targeting him in
retaliation for his coverage of alleged police abuse. Goette-Luciak
presented these allegations and accusing the government of a cover-up
in his first article for the Guardian on May 29.
Goette-Luciak
also described to the Edge of Adventure having witnessed the
so-called Mother’s Day Massacre, where several demonstrators
commemorating those who had already died in the unrest were killed on
May 30.
The
bloodshed that took place that day remains a source of heated
contention. Violence had erupted across the country, with the
opposition opening fire on a Sandinista caravan in the city of
Esteli, killing one and wounding dozens. Opposition vandals burned
the leftist Radio Ya station for the third time as well as parts of
Managua’s Metrocentro complex. Videos show opposition gunmen
opening fire that day on the streets of Managua and toting weapons
near the Mother’s Day march. The opposition and Western media
placed the blame squarely on Sandinista-affiliated elements for
sniping into the crowd of marchers, but have yet to produce clear
evidence proving their case.
Speaking
to the Edge of Adventure, Goette-Luciak conceded that he had left the
march and was several blocks away drinking a beer when the shooting
began. He said he returned after he heard shooting and described the
deaths as the result of targeting killings by Sandinista
paramilitaries.
“I
witnessed two deaths…” he told Edge of Adventure. “A
young man standing a few yards from me was hit by a bullet in the
head, and standing behind him, what I saw was the back of his head
explode like a watermelon that got dropped.”
Hours
after the violence, a ferociously anti-government network known as
“100% Noticias” published a grisly photo of a man supposedly
killed by government forces whose brain was spilling out of his
skull. The image was soon exposed as a fake and has since been
deleted. In fact, it depicted a death from a separate conflict and
had been taken years before.
Though
Goette-Luciak said he had taken photos of the march, he has yet to
publish any of the killings he said he witnessed.
In a
separate incident this June, Goette-Luciak appeared momentarily in a
highly disturbing video filmed by 100% Noticias. He could be seen
taking photos of a mob of opposition thugs in the act of kidnapping
and beating an aging Sandinista member they had found squatting on a
local oligarch’s abandoned property. Oddly, Goette-Luciak published
no photos of the incident and did not report on it.
The
Radio La Ciudadana outlet where Goette-Luciak is listed as “director
of investigations” contains sparse evidence of journalistic
production: a section on the site marked as “investigations” is
empty; the photos section contains 15 images Goette-Luciak captured
on Mother’s Day, where he claimed to have witnessed two murders: a
grand total of three news stories are featured on the site. Radio La
Ciudadana was founded by Azucena “Chena” Castillo, an MRS party
activist who has also worked as director of the USAID-funded outlet
Radio Universidad.
The only
other record of Goette-Luciak’s photojournalism existed at the Edge
of Adventure website, which had published about 20 images he captured
— one of which depicted him posing with an opposition gunman. The
Edge of Adventure is a little-known media site founded by Adam Asher
Wattenbarger, a self-styled travel journalist who is listed as an
executive at the right-wing, Christian-oriented Salem Media Group.
This
month, Goette-Luciak fell under sustained criticism from Sandinista
supporters on Facebook for his one-sided coverage of the country’s
political crisis. Many accused him of operating as a U.S.
intelligence asset. The Edge of Adventure promptly deleted its
podcast interview with him and scrubbed most of his photos from the
site.
Goette-Luciak
then began cleaning up his own Facebook page, deleting his selfies
with MRS party leaders.
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