Pablo Hiriart
The recent Spanish landing in America brings Pablo Iglesias—until recently Spain’s vice president—into the role of Admiral of the Ocean Sea. He arrives with the gospel of authoritarian populism to help destroy liberal democracy. He launched a continent-wide online television channel, Canal Red, in addition to his newspaper, Diario Red, to “confront the reactionary international media.” He comes to encourage ideological polarization.
To get an idea of what drives this character, read this reminder from veteran Spanish journalist Santi González (Tribuna Vasca, Cambio 16, El Correo, El Mundo, The Objective) last week. Iglesias recorded a love song to the guillotine:
“Good old Jean Paul Marat called it ‘the Louison machine’ in honor of Louis XVI. How many horrors we Spaniards would have been spared if we had had the instruments of democratic justice at our disposal in time! As Robespierre said: ‘To punish the oppressors is clemency. To forgive them is barbarism.’ How relevant is today the reflection of that great revolutionary!”
Iglesias jumped from politics in the Madrid courts to the media because, in his view—and he certainly has a keen sense of this—the war of populism against democracy has a fundamental battlefield in social media. The history of the financial support he has received consolidates the narrative of his objectives. According to the Spanish press, the Center for Political and Social Studies Foundation (CEPS), which included Pablo Iglesias, Íñigo Herrejón, and other leaders of the Podemos party, received at least €3.7 million from Hugo Chávez’s government between 2002 and 2012. Last November, it was revealed that Iglesias’ production company, Agitprop, reached an agreement with Gustavo Petro’s government to broadcast his program La Base on Colombian public television. In Spain, the program presented by Iglesias, Fort Apache, was broadcast for seven years on the Iranian Spanish-language channel HispanTV, operated by the Islamic government of Iran.
A report by the US Defense University explains that around $9.5 million flowed to the production company behind Iglesias’ program (360 Global Media), including funds from the Emirates National Bank of Dubai. On July 25, Pablo Iglesias boasted about a video showcasing Canal Red’s new facilities in Mexico City for Latin America, where prominent members of the populist left from Argentina, Bolivia, Uruguay, Colombia, and other countries will collaborate. The arrival of Podemos and Pablo Iglesias in Latin America is not just another episode of media globalization, but part of an ideological offensive.
It seeks to strengthen hate speech based on lies and the manipulation of information. The cultural battle is therefore being fought in the media, although some have not yet realized it. For the Admiral of the Ocean Sea who has just landed on our shores, “where there is private property, there is corruption.” “What is happening and has happened in Venezuela and Latin America is and will continue to be a fundamental reference point for citizens in southern Europe.” And he did not say this as a warning, but as a path to follow. “The truth is that to give the Nobel Peace Prize to Corina Machado, who has been trying to stage a coup in her country for years, they could have given it directly to Trump or even to Adolf Hitler posthumously.”
Inna Afinogenova, former deputy director of Russia Today (RT), the Kremlin’s propaganda organ that is banned in Europe, which she resigned from due to disagreements with the invasion of Ukraine (which very few believe), is the director of Canal Red, brought to us by Pablo Iglesias. She explains what it is all about:
“To consolidate itself as an alternative for Latin American audiences at a time when the reactionary international, supported by economic and media power, is advancing in its cultural battle against everything that has to do with popular movements, progress in rights, and, ultimately, progressivism.”
Spanish writer and professor César Antonio Molina clearly explained on The Objective what this deceitful, populist, and authoritarian left (I say this one, because fortunately, there is also the other one) has sought to do in his country:
“Today, oppression, still moderated by the incompetence of those responsible, is organized by this ‘progressive’ government. Control of the media, contempt for the Constitution, contempt for the separation of powers, contempt for the parliamentary monarchy, corruption admitted and widespread from the highest structures of the Socialist Party.“
The battle reaches the media in Latin America.
César Antonio Molina argues:
”To avoid being complicit in the lie, we must not spread rumors whose content has not been verified. Trust reliable media outlets. Listen to judges. Give a voice to intellectuals. Listen to critical, prestigious, and independent thinkers.”
That is where the battlefield lies, on social media and in traditional media.
Will we have to surrender to Iglesias, Afinogenova, and their native patrons?
Long live hatred and lies, and death to agreement?
Further Reading: