ILLUSTRATIVE IMAGE: REUTERS/ANDRES MARTINEZ CASARES
A new round of wild speculations about the Russian involvement in the Venezula crisis sufraced in mainstream media outlets on January 30.
According to the new rumor, about 20 tons of gold from Venezuela’s central bank was ready to be hauled away on January 29 on a Russian airline’s Boeing 777 that landed in Caracas on January 28. The plane reportedly made the trip from Moscow with only a crew aboard.
Noticias Venezuela, a well-known pro-opposition media outlet, seems to be among the sources of these rumors. The media declares that it’s created to overcome “censorship imposed by the Venezuelan regime” in the period of crisis.
Este es el avión ruso que llegó anoche. Está en el auxiliar de Maiquetia, pertenece a Nordwind Airlines y vino directo de Moscú solo con la tripulación. pic.twitter.com/jD8Ofk4HoE
— Noticias Venezuela (@NoticiasVenezue) January 30, 2019
Another source of the rumors is Venezuelan pro-opposition lawmaker Jose Guerra, who directly claimed that the government is moving gold away from the country. When asked how he knew this, Guerra provided no evidence.
Following this multiple mainstream media outlets and pro-coup “media activists’ started spreading rumors about a possible purpose of the flight. The most popular are:
- Officials or families of officials from the government of President Nicolas Maduro is evacuating from the country;
- The Maduro government is moving its gold reserves to Moscow.
Both rumors have not been confirmed by any evidence. However, they became widely spread among the international audience thanks to help of such media outlets as Fox News, The Telegraph, Reuters and others.
Interesting flight. A Boeing 777 of Russian Nordwind Airlines is on its way to Caracas. No pax, but two crews on board. Nordwind does not operate to Venezuela. So this is a special flight. Two crews might indicate aircraft will depart soon after arrival. Aircraft has 277 seats. https://t.co/qRa4gYAWRm
— Marcel van den Berg☁ (@marcelvandenber) January 28, 2019
Another theory states that the plane carried mercenaries, but there has been no solid evidence of this claim also.
Meanwhile, mainstream media outlets continue to fuel the political crisis in the country. On January 30, CNN released an interview with “Venezuelan army defectors”, who asked the US to help them to defend “freedom” by weapons supplies and other actions. The video interview presented the story like these persons just defected from the Venezuelan’s army, but a closer look shows that they are former soldiers living outside the country and wear old-pattern uniforms.
