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Disinfo: The EU stances on the assault of the US Capitol and on Juan Guaidó show its double standards

Summary

We have just entered the new year and the Double Standard Gold Award has already lots of contesters. The EU also rejected the assault on the US Capitol and showed its shock. The same European Union members that recognised Juan Guaidó as “interim president” of Venezuela, at a great extent due to his denunciations of the electoral and institutional illegitimacy of the Venezuelan government.

Disproof

By claiming that the EU denounced violent protesters protesting against electoral fraud in the US while it recognised Juan Guaidó as interim president of Venezuela, who made similar allegations, this disinformation narrative attempts to prove the EU’s “hypocrisy”. However, the comparison does not stand up to a serious analysis: in both cases, the EU defended democratic institutions and denounced attempts by one side to suppress the democratic choices of the other.

The reactions of EU leaders to the events in the US Capitol were informed by the fact that, contrary to the claims of Donald Trump and his supporters, there is no evidence of electoral fraud in the November 2020 election. In contrast, the EU’s recognition of Juan Guaidó as interim president followed an entirely peaceful move based on Venezuela’s own Constitution (articles 231, 233, 333 and 350), in a context of lack of democratic legitimacy of the government of Nicolás Maduro, and after Maduro himself failed to call for snap, free elections. All these factors were deeply weighed by European institutions during all this process in order to follow due procedure. In fact, when Guaidó’s mandate as head of the Venezuelan National Assembly expired in January 2021 and it was no longer possible to consider his position as interim president as legal, the EU withdrew its recognition.

See other examples of these disinformation narratives, such as claims that by criticising Belarus but not France’s handling of the Yellow Vests the EU is showcasing its hypocrisy; that there is a double standard about violent protests in France, Germany and Poland; that Europe turns a blind eye towards the oppression of ethnic Russians in Ukraine and the Baltic states; or that the EU supports terrorists and not the sovereignty of Syria.

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publication/media

https://youtube.com/watch?v=-SgplD07G-k&t=390 [from 06:30 to 06:38], [from 07:26 to 07:43] (Archived)
https://youtube.com/watch?v=-SgplD07G-k&t=390 [from 06:30 to 06:38], [from 07:26 to 07:43] (Archived)
  • Reported in: Issue 227
  • DATE OF PUBLICATION: 12/01/2021
  • Country: EU, Venezuela, US
  • Keywords: Juan Guaido, European Union, Donald Trump

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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