IMO there's 3 major points in the current discourse, but these are reflections of previous media cycles on Venezuela that tend to repeat similar themes:

1. General poor conditions in Venezuela
2. 2024 elections
3. Gusano effect

Anyone who pays attention to geopolitics discourse from a leftist perspective will know that the poorer the country, the more likely that it will be considered a dictatorship for doing the same things any "democratic" country does (and the dissatisfaction people feel with the general state of things helps make this case). This is part of why US sanctions work, you force the country into a catch 22 where they either compromise with US imperialist interests, or their people will suffer to the point that you may as well have been exploiting them all along.

The 2024 Presidential Elections were scandalous in Venezuela. There were accusations made by Western NGOs and the Venezuelan neoliberal parties that Maduro rigged the election. In my opinion there's no substantial evidence that this is the case. Most of the media attention in the scandal went to the accusations from Edmundo González (neoliberal opposition candidate) that the government tampered with the ballots or the counting directly. Western NGOs/think tanks that were casting doubt on the election's legitimacy didn't go that far, though, and Edmundo González never presented the evidence that the election has been stolen.

Finally there's the perpetual issue of revolutions causing a lot of people to be pissed off when their privileged class status is revoked. There's also a particular issue where a lot of Venezuelan gusanos aren't even the usual case of bourgeois exiles/fleeing with their wealth, but working class people that have left the country over time because of the poor economic situation (though these are still people who have the means to reach whatever country they end up in—never the poorest of the poor). These people who already have negative opinions of their country join communities that reinforce that negative image, and get all their news from right wing sources. This means that imperialist media actually can readily find some people who didn't quite get their servants snatched from them by Chávez, the stereotypical Cuban style gusano, but working class people who will say that Maduro is the reason for all their problems.

He was mean to Chevron

Which btw is an imprisonable offence in the US https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steven_Donziger

Liberals of lemmy, this is your best chance

Come give us tankies your best arguments you cowards

1. 15 years of vuvuzela no iphone propaganda.

2. The media cycle that attempted to get Juan Guaido into power on the back of national unrest that occurred over sanctions, which was paired with some sus attacks and I suspect an attempt to convert it into a colour revolution.

3. The 2024 media cycle with the election being so close and accusations of fixing it.

I only recently had a change of mind so it really is because, (1) Venezuela has been utterly ravaged economically each sanction, (2) the internet has been astroturfed to hell and back and (3) it causes some cognitive dissonance and uncomfortable feeling when people imagine it is false, and if you're in the belly of the empire, and don't gain anything from accepting this reality, you would rather benefit from being ignorant

There's more foreign observers making the Venezuelan elections 'fair' by international standards than the US's elections, but it's still authoritarianism if they don't sell the US everything at discount prices

They'll say he cheated at elections, ignoring that they put in place more measures against cheating than any western country : https://x.com/i/status/1817560455646236974
They'll also ignore that, when you sanction a country to death, you're forbidden to then complain about any alleged cheating at subsequent elections. They'll also ignore that it's our sanctions that ruined Venezuela b.t.w., or that it was attacked because sanctions were becoming inefficient since ~2022.
Everybody is calling him a dictator, and none seem to be aware that the venezuelan communes render such accusations meaningless :



They'll ignore that some measure of authoritarianism is necessary when constantly attacked by the strongest country on earth : https://x.com/i/status/1258879766888886272
They'll usually ignore that socialism would have been more widespread if western countries didn't invade/coup/sanction/destroy socialist(, and anti-zionist,) countries, as hegemons do(, e.g., but in Africa and Asia as well)

Lots of ignorance on both sides convinced to be true, as always(, and perhaps some hypocrites in commands who don't care about the truth nor believe in morality).
It feels useless to talk about it on the internet, or to assassinate Trump in retaliation(, since he'd be replaced), and we(sterners) will continue to picture ourselves as the good guys.

Our societies weren't supposed to be build on lies, if we want to act virtuously then we ought to present both sides of each conflict to our citizens, that's how it's supposed to work.

Effective propaganda

He told the exploiters no. The crapitalists can't sell that truth. Therefore "Dictator".

Propaganda, I think. People dont know anything about the political systems of most other nations, especially not designated enemies. Ask someone about how chinas elections are run or how Irans government is structured.

He's a dictator because he wasn't elected or the elections were fraudulent. How do we know that? The un says so. Or independent experts. Or the refugees.
The late Obama run - early trump coup attempt with guaido is not remembered, but the propaganda from then is still what is gripping people

And how is an opposition that says our way or we get the US to sanction cripple and invade the country not authoritarian.

Even if he lost 2024 election he had good reason to stay especially after they tried to coup him with Guido. The opposition are dogs of the empire, literal foreign agents

Westerners are great enemy and they must be destroyed

honestly i've dug and dug and can't figure out the reason at all besides the usual propaganda ones

the robert fedvans radlib grifter podcasters claim he locks people up and makes people leave the country but there's not any specifics besides a hatred of any "state" doing "state" stuff

his country has oil

Does it mean anything other than leader I don't like?

There are none. It's one of those things, "Say a lie often enough and loud enough and eventually it becomes true." The opposition party in Venezuela every year does stunts like boycotting elections, claiming that elections are rigged and stolen from them, etc. They've been doing it long enough, and America has been giving it a lot of publicity for so long now that people just uncritically digest it as true

he also did elections wrong apparently

Socialism

Afaik they say that collectivos are thugs that usurp democracy and torture people for 'the regime'. The evidence is during the American invasion the other day one group of them shot at a car or something as a warning shot

A friend on a Discord asked for sources on the election claims. Are there lists of which international orgs observes the elections or some other reporting that show how they were run fairly?

Edit: this article is pretty good from Nov 7 seems like good context.

https://revsoc21.uk/2025/11/07/venezuela-between-crisis-and-invasion/

I don't see anything in these comments that helps answer the question. We all understand the media is turned against Maduro, they make shit up, etc., we all understand that liberals are unreliable.

I do not understand why every single comment is like "maduro never did anything wrong." How does that educate people? People learn to adopt a particular political line (or face ridicule from others,) but they dont learn to assess facts and reach correct conclusions, they dont learn critical analysis.

There is a 0% chance that the leader of Venezuela has made 0 mistakes while the country is being ravaged by a terroristic right wing, severe economic sanction and deliberate attacks on their markets for decades, capital strikes, several attempted coups, etc. If analysis exists, present it! Dont just act like an ideological parrot. If you have some ideas about it then share them, but I think theres enough comments about "Maduro has done literally nothing wrong ever and there is no basis for criticism whatsoever." I get there are ppl who don't like criticizing AES countries, but the fact that these people dominate the discourse is something that needs to be corrected.

For some people, the "trust me bro" online ML ultra's word is not good enough. I can appreciate the perspective but I didn't become a leftist by not questioning narratives. There are a lot of people who are asking for this analysis in actually serious political spaces, and I've yet to see it materialize. So if anyone has something tangible that can be studied and taken seriously other than VUVLUZELA NO IPONE memes it would get shared.

There are always legitimate criticisms because people are suffering. Even if those people dont understand why they are suffering and blame the wrong forces, doesnt mean silencing them is what is best for our movements.

Because that's what the media told them.

That's it.

And of course what exactly "the media" refers to differs by the person, it could be fox news, NYT, some astroturfed Twitter account...

https://lemmy.ml/post/38923418