By Alex Rosaria
Latin America and the Caribbean are often overlooked in discussions on the phenomenon of fake news, and disinformation. The Washington DC-based Global Americans, of which I’m a member, joined forces with Centro para la Apertura y Desarrollo de América Latina, Medianálisis, Universidad del Rosario and Escuela de Gobierno y Transformación Pública Tecnológico de Monterrey to gain a region-wide perspective on disinformation (1). Additionally, the geopolitical motivations and strategies deployed by non-democratic regimes – whether Russia, China, or Venezuela – in our region which in recent decades has emerged as a battleground between democracy and autocracy (2).
While the disinformation landscape varies, there is a sustained effort by non-democratic governments – like China and Russia, and to a lesser extent, Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran – to increase their global presence, including in local language media sites, YouTube channels, news bureaus, and on social media in our region. These efforts are construed to influence public perception of these non-democratic states and their policies and tilt local media coverage and sow disinformation and discord. This poses a threat to democratic norms, transparency, tolerance, and human rights.
We need to understand the sources, methods, targets, and themes of this state-based propaganda and disinformation campaign. The rigorous quantitative and qualitative research done, covering Argentina, Chile, Peru, Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela, has examined the use of “sharp power” which is defined as effectively creating a positive image of the perpetrator via disinformation campaigns, often orchestrated by media affiliated with these countries.
The study has evaluated misleading and propagandistic media stories in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, which has allowed Global Americans and partners to identify the modalities and sources of international and domestic disinformation campaigns throughout the region. The extent, nature, and objectives of foreign state-media disinformation campaigns, the targets of those efforts across population sub-groups, and across select topics of choice were covered by the study as well as the social media landscape to determine the affiliated but undeclared partners of foreign state media.
The research revealed the following important findings:
1. China, Russia, and other undemocratic actors are actively promoting disinformation and propaganda in Latin America through their state-sponsored media channels, though the degree and scope of these efforts vary from country to country. The most active of these are Russia Today, Telesur, Sputnik Mundo, and Xinhua Español as well as Twitter and Facebook.
2. Chinese and Russian disinformation and propaganda are disproportionately concentrated on thematic targets that lie at the intersection of democratic fault lines, inflaming local political rifts, promoting like-minded and often non-democratic local forces, and portraying China and Russia as benevolent partners and alternatives to the U.S. throughout the region.
3. While Chinese and Russian government disinformation operations are often similar, there are key differences. Russia lacks the means to properly court deeper commercial opportunities and its disinformation strategy is focused on disrupting social order and political stability as seen in Colombia and Chile, two known U.S. allies. Russia also seeks to gain new friends that are preferably disinclined to the U.S. in the hope of expanding their political influence. In contrast, China is the world’s second-largest economy, a major trading partner throughout the region, and an important foreign investor. While the Russian government generally attempts to disrupt, the Chinese government’s disinformation strategy tries to position China as the new benevolent hegemon and the dominant international power in the current international system.
4. Venezuela lies at the other end of the disinformation extreme, home to overt and direct disinformation from China, Russia, and the Venezuelan authorities themselves, all undermining democratic forces in the country.
5. Research on Peru revealed that Chinese state media is the most active in the Andean country, likely due to Peru’s wealth of mineral resources and oil, and the existence of a relatively sizable community of Chinese descent. Chinese influence is most felt through the local media, academic circles, and government officials, many of whom have visited China. In Peru, Russian engagement is far less of a factor, particularly compared to Russian engagement in countries such as Colombia, Venezuela, and Argentina.
6. Research indicates considerable Russian and Chinese engagement in Argentina in the media and information space. For China, Argentina is a significant source of key commodities, including soybeans, meat, and seafood, while for Russia, the Argentine government’s lukewarm relationship with the U.S. is of keen interest, as it allows Moscow to cast its influence there.
7. The research found that Chinese efforts largely centered around promoting the Chinese economic model and narratives of solidarity, while Russian propaganda was particularly active in positively portraying its vaccine, Sputnik V, with its disinformation operations seeking to tarnish U.S. and European vaccines.
8. In Colombia foreign state media was present but to varying degrees. The study looked at 86,615 Twitter posts published in Spanish by nine news agencies between September 1, 2019, through September 30, 2020; a total of 1,464 profiles were manually reviewed to report on the disinformation process, including the creation, production, and dissemination of messages, and found that 184 accounts spread posts created by Chinese media outlets, including alleged cyborgs (18) mainly located in Venezuela, Argentina, Colombia, and Uruguay and highly suspicious users (3) located in Venezuela (2) and Mexico (1); 247 accounts propagated information created by Russian media outlets, including alleged cyborgs (40) and highly suspicious users (10) mainly located in Colombia, and 225 accounts propagated information created by Cuban and Venezuelan media outlets, including cyborgs (18) located in Venezuela, Colombia, and Cuba, as well as highly suspicious users (10) located in Colombia.
9. Chinese messaging in Colombia centers on its role as an important trade partner and therefore the narrative projected is one of a mutually beneficial partnership between the two countries. In contrast, Russian state media in Colombia has engaged most actively during moments of social discontent, with that messaging largely centered around anti-government talking points.
10. Colombia’s role as a U.S. ally has made its way into Russian messaging. The research indicates that Venezuelan political actors have also engaged in aggressive misinformation efforts against the Colombian government, due in part to Bogotá’s willingness to host large numbers of Venezuelan refugees and members of the Venezuelan opposition.
I believe these findings underscore the importance of better understanding foreign state media, their activities, their counterparts, their preferred themes, and their preferred tactics. It’s an indication that maybe we should commission a study, be it stand-alone or with our Caribbean neighbors, so we can better detect and counteract non-democratic foreign state media campaigns. It also indicates how important it is to invest in promoting a more politically conscious citizenry that is more understanding and even skeptical. The price for non-engagement and apathy toward disinformation networks is too high and not confronting this challenge risks perpetuating ongoing anti-democratic trends and further eroding democratic institutions in our region.
Willemstad, Curaçao/Global America
1) https://theglobalamericans.org/monitoring-foreign-disinformation-in-latin-america/
2) https://alexdavidrosaria.wordpress.com/2018/12/21/the-new-cold-war-in-the-caribbean/
~ Alex David Rosaria (53) is a freelance consultant active in Asia and the Pacific. He is a former Member of Parliament, Minister of Economic Affairs, State Secretary of Finance and UN Implementation Officer in Africa and Central America. He is from Curaçao and has an MBA from University of Iowa (USA). ~
By Alex Rosaria
In 1989 I visited the Door of No Return via which millions of African slaves took the final step from their home continent onto the slave ships that would bring them to the new world if they even survived the journey. Île de Gorée, Sénégal.
Dear Editor,
We were told by the post office employee and management they are not registering letters to the USA. Why?
Last month l was told it will cost US $20.00 or NAf. 36.00 to send the letter through express.
Two weeks later l went back to register a letter to the USA and they told me the same thing and I was charged $36.00 to send the letter through express.
Our concerns and questions to you prime minister: why letters cannot be sent to the USA by registering it?
The United States is an international place in the world and why our letters cannot be sent registered, what’s the problem? Please let us know on Wednesday briefing.
Cuthbert Bannis
Dear Editor,
An Ombudsman is very important, my Dad told me, to any island, country, state and continent.
Some of the public think Rolando is acting as a member of NA party. I think Rolando is trying to help the coalition make the full term.
Read my lips: without UD party or UP Party in this government with NA party, this government would have long ago fallen already.
All Bannis knows is that UP board members are monitoring Rolando 24/7, and will fix Rolando up at UPP congress.
Rolando, be wise and St. Maarten historians please wake up from your slumber and please take note of this Wednesday, August 17th parliamentarians meeting to know exactly who to vote out, come next coming election.
And any new governor should be interested in St. Maarten’s independence to be St. Maarteners’ governor.
Cuthbert Bannis
Dear Editor,
It seems that there is no end to the scams that prevail in our world today, there’s always someone trying to get something through nefarious, fraudulent and often criminal schemes. Always at the end, someone is a victim, someone suffers, whether financially, emotionally or socially.
There is yet another scam ongoing in our islands these days, just another of the many that seem to pop up from time to time. This one is not about money nor inheritance, at least not immediately nor directly, it is about gaining nationality, either US citizenship or European Union, in this case, Kingdom of the Netherlands citizenship.
In recent months, women on neighboring islands have been telling men that they have fathered a child, they target married men and men prominent in the business community, often after having one casual sexual encounter; most times the woman is someone who is of questionable background and behavior; when the news comes, the child is usually several months old. The woman will then claim that she kept the fact of the pregnancy and the birth of the child a secret because she knew the man was married and she didn’t want to upset his marriage.
In one particular case which has just come to light, the child, now a full grown woman with children of her own, is said to have been fathered over 25 years ago. The mother in question claims, as expected, that she knew he was married and she did not want to upset his marriage.
Recently, this writer discovered that this “scam” had been tried with at least two men, one in the BVI and the other in the Dutch islands. The Dutchman, his ego getting the better of him, seems to have accepted that he fathered a child, he announced to members of his family and friends, that he has a child on St. Kitts and that he is a grandfather as well, he happily showed off photos of his “supposed” daughter and her children. This man had been in his marriage for over 30 years and fathered no children in that marriage so, ego prevailing, having told everyone that the childless marriage was the fault of his wife, he is proud to be able to claim this mysterious child he has found after all these years.
Now comes the problem for both the mother and the grown daughter; the fact is that the Dutchman has nothing to give this newly-found daughter, there is no property to inherit, no big bank account but there is nationality, a European Union passport. However, this comes with a catch, DNA testing.
Due to the fact that many men of Dutch nationality have, in the past, claimed children mothered by foreign women outside of the kingdom and have brought them into the kingdom with full privileges of Dutch citizenship, Dutch law now requires DNA matching for any supposed offspring of a Dutch national, even women bringing children into the kingdom claiming they gave birth abroad are subject to the same system. Therefore, this newly found daughter will have to submit to DNA testing if she has any plan to enter the Dutch kingdom, even to make a claim of inheritance.
A recent situation on another Dutch island required that a “son” born outside the marriage, even though he was born on the island, in attempting to claim a portion of inheritance, had to prove that he was a biological child of the deceased before he was even heard in his claim against the estate of his deceased father.
Nothing is known of the supposed father/victim in the BVI, he may or may not have been able to dodge the scam, but the Dutchman was ripe for the picking. His saving grace will be the immigration system of the Kingdom of the Netherlands and the inheritance laws, both requiring DNA testing.
These two men are not the first; women have had multiple men supporting a child or children they did not father, this is a familiar game. Some men have been taken to court and ordered to pay child support, then to find out that they are not the father of the child. In one recent case in the United States state of Georgia, a man was released from his obligation of over 16 years when DNA test results proved he was not the father of the child. Even more painfully for him, the mother knew the true father but still received payments through the court system for the boy, while also receiving occasional support from the biological father, a married man who had three children with his wife and was still very married.
This has been happening throughout the Caribbean, the United States and elsewhere, for many years; embarrassment and blackmail have kept many men paying for countless children they have not fathered. It has to stop.
Men who fall prey to infidelity deserve punishment, I agree, but women who blackmail or force men to pay for children they did not father should have to repay every dollar they have received, it is fraud. In the same instance, taking advantage of weak men to gain nationality or inheritance is also fraud. In the instance of the Dutch system, it is unfortunate that years after the children had been living with their Dutch nationality, their passports were taken away because they were gotten through deception.
In these times, all over the world, DNA testing has become the norm. It should give people who are willing to deceive and defraud others time to think.
It is true that many men from the Dutch islands have had and are still having children with women in the Federation, the Dominican Republic and elsewhere; some know their children, some don’t. Those who want to know them and bring them into the Kingdom of the Netherlands, they know that there are procedures to be followed. Allowing themselves to become the victim of someone who thinks of them as foolish, gullible or easily manipulated is not a requirement.
Name withheld at author’s request.
