Julian Macfarlane
NEWS FORENSICS
The media, both mainstream and alternative, frequently mention Venezuela as if the American narrative of Venezuela is like a TV series. Season One finishes and we await Season Two. We think we know the story that unfolded in the first season – but do we? Maybe the writers have different ideas to make new episodes more interesting. The suspense builds.
But the Venezuelan story mixes fact and fiction in such a way that it confounds the mind with too many plot holes.
As usual, I have tried to research the issues and identify facts. It wasn’t easy.
Let’s look at some basics.
Sanctions and a major earthquake have hurt Venezuela badly. But its assets have been plundered.
This chart does not include the 2025 auction of Citgo which probably cost Venezuela as much as $20 billion, counting everything.
Delcy Rodriquez labeled the court-ordered auction a “fraudulent” and “forced” sale designed to strip the South American nation of its sovereign assets— a “vulgar and barbaric dispossession” of resources that belong to the Venezuelan people.
It is an accurate characterization.
And the country certainly needs those stolen resources.
Of course, the US is just beginning.
Clearly it is hungry for more.
Trump likes to talk about Venezuela in the context of Iran for good reason.
Trump claims to have sold $15 billion of Venezuelan oil, which technically belongs to Caracas, just like its gold and other assets held by the US and UK. But it can’t legallyl touch those moneys.
Instead Caracas gets dribs and drabs.
I don’t know how accurate this chart is. But you can see that Venezuela is selling oil.
The US is saying that everything depends on the willingness to do exactly as the US commands, changing its electoral and judicial system and constitution of course and also suddenly getting friendly with Israel who provided help after the earthquake. Do as Papa says or no allowance for you, Pedro.
But Delcy’s sudden friendliness to Israel invited criticism.
The presence of U.S. and Israeli personnel on Venezuelan soil has sparked fierce blowback from the public. Demonstrators in Caracas have held large rallies burning both U.S. and Israeli flags, accusing Washington of using humanitarian recovery efforts as a front for imperialist political control .
There are many in Venezuela who are suspicious of Delcy, who spent years abroad, and is said to wear designer clothing and watches that no ordinary person can afford. Venezuela has always been a country divided on racial lines. The affluent middle and upper middle classes are largely whiteish- they are the “haves”. The “have-nots’ who were enfranchised and gifted with education, housing and healthcare by Chavez are brown-ish — the people of the communes. Notice the “ish” ; everyone is mixed.
In the aftermath of the earthquake, everyone pitched in to help but basic organization and direction was provided by Chavista communes. The American media, of course, has a different story, suggesting the Chavistas got in the way of …ummm…”private enterprise”? More hindrance than help.
Let us keep in mind that Venezuela has always been divided. Delcy Rodriquez is no Chavez — she is a Western-trained pragmatist, a “realist”. Chavez was an idealist and he had a vision. Maybe Delcy does too —I have my doubts — but I will need to research more, however.
Nothing is as it seems to be. It’s not just Latin America. It is most countries. In the case of Venezuela, my rule is just not to believe the media. Especially when opinion appears unanimous.
Truth is always late to arrive.
Here is an example:
The CIA debunks the myth of electoral fraud in VenezuelaJuly 20, 2026 , 11:13 am .
The White House propaganda machine has suffered an informational short circuit caused by its own bureaucratic weight. In an attempt to breathe life into the worn-out narrative of the “illegitimacy” of the Venezuelan political process, US President Donald Trump ordered the declassification of a set of intelligence files.According to Washington’s official account, these documents would expose a sophisticated electronic fraud mechanism capable of altering election results during the administrations of Commander Hugo Chávez and President Nicolás Maduro.
However, an examination of the documentation —specifically an internal Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) memo dated June 29 and released on July 1— reveals the opposite scenario: Langley’s own analysts categorically contradict the narrative of their Executive.Langley’s Admission
The executive summary of the declassified memorandum states that, while the U.S. intelligence community maintained ongoing observation and “persistent concerns” about the electronic voting system infrastructure in Venezuela between 2004 and 2020, the agency concludes that “large-scale electronic fraud has not been definitively confirmed in specific Venezuelan elections.”
For US intelligence, the technological fetish of hacking loses weight in the face of the country’s sociopolitical reality. The CIA’s baseline assessment maintains that “there are other factors that better explain the election results.” In the technical jargon of US analysts, this formulation implicitly acknowledges that Chavismo’s victories over the last two decades are truly explained by the organic cohesion of its social base and the historical fragmentation of the opposition forces, and not by hidden manipulation of the voting screens.
From theoretical vulnerabilities to the absence of evidenceThe declassified document attempts to maintain an analytical stance by noting that automated systems possess “vulnerabilities that could theoretically be exploited by sophisticated actors with internal access.” However, the report is careful not to make any sweeping statements and avoids categorically asserting that these operational weaknesses were ever used to manipulate the popular will.
Furthermore, the CIA undermines the quality of its own intelligence from that period by openly acknowledging that the reports collected on alleged advanced manipulation techniques came from “limited sources.” This reveals that most of Washington’s narrative framework was based for years on biased testimonies from local opposition leaders and disinformation contractors abroad, lacking any kind of field verification.
Analytical assessment of a propaganda fiction
The declassification of these files dismantles the core of the technical justification for the sanctions and diplomatic isolation against Venezuela. If the world’s largest intelligence agency, with the greatest availability of technological and financial resources dedicated to political espionage, admits after sixteen years of observation that concerns did not translate into conclusive evidence of fraud, the objective conclusion is that the United States has no proof of the alteration of election results in Venezuela.
The Trump administration’s maneuver has served to bring transparency to the record of the aggression and confirm that the discourse of “massive electronic fraud” has never operated as an intelligence certainty, but as a narrative of psychological operations intended for consumption by the international media and internal destabilization. Everything else, judged from the CIA’s own records, belongs strictly to the realm of propaganda.
This memo contradicts not only the White House and State Department but the entire mainstream media, most of the NSAM and a lot of foreign governments, which followed the herd.
July 20, 2026 , 11:13 am .
The White House propaganda machine has suffered an informational short circuit caused by its own bureaucratic weight. In an attempt to breathe life into the worn-out narrative of the “illegitimacy” of the Venezuelan political process, US President Donald Trump ordered the declassification of a set of intelligence files.According to Washington’s official account, these documents would expose a sophisticated electronic fraud mechanism capable of altering election results during the administrations of Commander Hugo Chávez and President Nicolás Maduro.
However, an examination of the documentation —specifically an internal Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) memo dated June 29 and released on July 1— reveals the opposite scenario: Langley’s own analysts categorically contradict the narrative of their Executive.Langley’s Admission
The executive summary of the declassified memorandum states that, while the U.S. intelligence community maintained ongoing observation and “persistent concerns” about the electronic voting system infrastructure in Venezuela between 2004 and 2020, the agency concludes that “large-scale electronic fraud has not been definitively confirmed in specific Venezuelan elections.”
For US intelligence, the technological fetish of hacking loses weight in the face of the country’s sociopolitical reality. The CIA’s baseline assessment maintains that “there are other factors that better explain the election results.” In the technical jargon of US analysts, this formulation implicitly acknowledges that Chavismo’s victories over the last two decades are truly explained by the organic cohesion of its social base and the historical fragmentation of the opposition forces, and not by hidden manipulation of the voting screens.
From theoretical vulnerabilities to the absence of evidenceThe declassified document attempts to maintain an analytical stance by noting that automated systems possess “vulnerabilities that could theoretically be exploited by sophisticated actors with internal access.” However, the report is careful not to make any sweeping statements and avoids categorically asserting that these operational weaknesses were ever used to manipulate the popular will.
Furthermore, the CIA undermines the quality of its own intelligence from that period by openly acknowledging that the reports collected on alleged advanced manipulation techniques came from “limited sources.” This reveals that most of Washington’s narrative framework was based for years on biased testimonies from local opposition leaders and disinformation contractors abroad, lacking any kind of field verification.
Analytical assessment of a propaganda fiction
The declassification of these files dismantles the core of the technical justification for the sanctions and diplomatic isolation against Venezuela. If the world’s largest intelligence agency, with the greatest availability of technological and financial resources dedicated to political espionage, admits after sixteen years of observation that concerns did not translate into conclusive evidence of fraud, the objective conclusion is that the United States has no proof of the alteration of election results in Venezuela.
The Trump administration’s maneuver has served to bring transparency to the record of the aggression and confirm that the discourse of “massive electronic fraud” has never operated as an intelligence certainty, but as a narrative of psychological operations intended for consumption by the international media and internal destabilization. Everything else, judged from the CIA’s own records, belongs strictly to the realm of propaganda.
Love changes your life
(Compassion toward the helpless is the queen of virtues)
Support New Forensics.
Help Ichi and Chappy. They nurse Julian back to health. Ummm… mental health.
I would really like to get to 5000 subscribers. If you like my work, share the urls on other blogs and sites and in comments on podcasts.
Show us you care by buying us coffee at https://buymeacoffee.com/julicow
