President Gabriel Boric made a call to take care of democracies following the controversy that is going on today in Spain following uncovering the deliberate spread of false news that affected the Spanish Podemos party and its former leader Pablo Iglesias a few years ago, fact in which the well-known journalist of that nation Antonio García Ferreras is involved.
the spanish channel The sixth, of which García Ferreras is the director and presenter, replied in 2016 to information that supposedly the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, made a payment of 272,000 dollars to a fake Iglesias account at the Europacific Bank branch in the Grenadine Islands.
The “fake news” was exposed yesterday following the digital newspaper Free Chronicle released audios in which the journalist is heard talking to José Manuel Villarejo, a veteran police commissioner who worked for the Spanish Ministry of the Interior, related to numerous cases of corruption and political espionage in Spain.
In those records, García Ferreras recognizes Villarejo that he considers the information “very coarse” on the alleged payment to the former leader of Podemos -published at the time by the Spanish digital newspaper OkDiary– in an account in the tax haven of Saint Vincent and the Grenadines in March 2014, two months following the founding of the party that is now in the coalition government of Spain.
Nevertheless, The sixth echoed that information shortly following.
Through his Twitter account, Iglesias denounced that García Ferreras admitted in these conversations that the information regarding his bank account “was false”, but “he also gave it” and that is why, in his opinion, “I should never practice as a journalist once more.”
Ferreras tells Villarejo that he knew that the “news” regarding “my account in the Grenadines” that “his brother” Inda gave him was false, but that he gave it anyway. He should never work as a journalist once more
Here the audios ????????https://t.co/dfCi4itU7I pic.twitter.com/eX2x4BvIr3
– Pablo Iglesias ???? (@PabloIglesias) July 9, 2022
In this context, the Chilean President used his social networks to condemn the episode, lamenting that “Fake news has done profound damage to social coexistence”.
“Here we see what they have done to Podemos in Spain for years, which is not very different from the practices of many in our Latin America. Let’s take care of our democracies!Bori exclaimed.
Fake news has done profound damage to social coexistence. Here we see what they have done to Podemos in Spain for years, which is not very different from the practices of many in our Latin America. Let’s take care of our democracies! https://t.co/G5inMkVFv9
— Gabriel Boric Font (@gabrielboric) July 10, 2022
The attitude of the Spanish communicator was also criticized by other characters in the European country, such as the current Minister of Social Rights, Ione Grasswho pointed out that the “contribution to discrediting” Podemos “has been key” and that García “has done irreparable damage to democracy”.
Venezuela’s relationship with Podemos has been the subject of controversy in Spain on other occasions and has reached the courts. The last time, as a result of the confessions of the former Chavista general Hugo Carvajal, following his arrest in Madrid claimed by the United States for drug trafficking, whose case was filed by the Spanish Justice last month.
Previously, the transfer of funds from Venezuela for regarding 142,000 dollars to the founders of the Carolina Bescansa formation, Jorge Lago and Ariel Jerez, through the company Viu Comunicaciones, had been investigated.
The judge also asked to investigate the presence in Venezuela of another of them, Juan Carlos Monedero, and the accreditation of alleged charges through the Venezuelan state oil company PDVSA.
LÓPEZ-OBRADOR AND FERNÁNDEZ DEMONSTRATE
The controversy was also discussed in other Latin American countries.
The president of Mexico, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador He reproached that the information disseminated once morest the leaders of the leftist Podemos generates “outrageous and alien grief.”
“Millions of countrymen are going to be angry with my grandfather, but the campaign of the conservatives once morest the leaders of Podemos is outrageous and outrageous,” The president said on his Twitter account.
Likewise, he quoted the words of the Spanish poet Antonio Machado: “In Spain, the best is the people (…) In hard times, the young gentlemen (…) invoke the homeland and sell it; the people do not even name it, but He buys it with his blood and saves it. In Spain, there is no way to be a well-born person without loving the people,” he said.
Millions of countrymen are going to be angry with my grandfather, but the campaign of the conservatives once morest the leaders of Podemos is outrageous and outrageous. Let us have faith, because as the poet Machado said:
– Andrés Manuel (@lopezobrador_) July 10, 2022
His Argentine peer, Alberto Fernandezalso deplored the situation on his Twitter account, where he pointed out that “it has been shown how news is spread once morest Pablo Iglesias to revile Podemos”, alleging that “the same thing happens between us”.
“Las false news spread by certain journalists to defame, discourage or persecute political leaders deeply hurt democracy”lambasted the trans-Andean president, who also charged once morest some of the media in his country for, according to him, “sowing discouragement” in the population.
Today it has been demonstrated how news once morest Pablo Iglesias is spread to revile Podemos. The same happens between us.
The false news spread by certain journalism to defame, discourage or persecute political leaders, deeply hurt democracy. https://t.co/FPYNIZVKnA
– Alberto Fernández (@alferdez) July 10, 2022
