That day (Jan. 19, 2007) Radio Mambi had a reporter scheduled to make a live report from the demonstration at the Bay of Pigs memorial on Calle Ocho. Their afternoon news program called "El Grande del Mediodia" went live on the scene just as the attack had ended. Its a good lesson to see how they reported the situation.
They had many sound bites of pro-Posada people saying that the counter-demonstrators didn't deserve to be there and that they were shouting pro-Bin Laden chants. Most likely (but not reported anywhere) the Bolivarian Youth were shouting "Bin Laden" in reference to descriptions made by the Venezuelan government calling Luis Posada Carriles "the Osama bin Laden of Latin America."
By 5pm, when Radio Mambi does another news program called "El Grande de las 5", they had a much more elaborate report about the incident. They said that the counter-demonstrators (the Bolivarian Youth) had caused "una provocacion" (a provocation) and went on to describe them as "dialogueros" (those who want a dialogue with the Cuban government) and as a group that "trabajan y sirven el gobierno Castrista" (works for and serves the Castro government).
This is a lesson on how propaganda works. Radio Mambi doesn't specify how the counter-demonstrators engaged in "provocation." Listeners are to fill in the gap and assume that
the violence was justified.
Radio Mambi vilifies and slanders a group that they obviously do not care to identify. It is best for the listener to assume that the counter-demonstrators got what they deserve. I doubt the members of the Bolivarian Youth work for the Castro government, but Radio Mambi wouldn't care to bring any evidence, and obviously being called a "dialoguero" is a label used to distract from the main issue: that the Bolivarian Youth was attacked.
This is Radio Mambi. Always a lesson on how NOT to report the news.
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