The suspension notification does not state the reason why the @Granma_Digital account was disabled, and although efforts have been made to reactivate it, no action has been successful. Editors and administrators of various media in Cuba, such as Cubadebate, Mesa Redonda, the Caribe television broadcaster, and Radio Rebelde, have also reported on Facebook and other channels, the suspension of their Twitter accounts without cause.

(Granma)

Broadly speaking, it is the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to provide services and information to citizens, increase the effectiveness and efficiency of public administration, and boost citizen participation.

The country’s leadership is promoting and strictly following this process. President of the Councils of State and Ministers, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, has offered directives on the subject on multiple occasions, one of the most recent being the 2018 report on the work of the Ministry of Communications, where he commented that to achieve the real computerization of society, that includes all aspects of life, more attention must be paid to the development of such processes.

Referring to the example of electronic government, Díaz-Canel stated: “We cannot settle for the existence of websites and platforms alone; all agencies and institutions must computerize their processes, both those related to their own work, and those directed toward the population.”

The main impact is on necessary procedures to meet the needs of the people, added the President. We cannot focus solely on state entities attached to the Ministry, he stressed, but its scope as a governing body, providing support to develop processes and solve problems in this field to any agency.

In accordance with this strategic policy, February 24, the official website of the Presidency of Cuba was launched, where contents related to the Cuban government will be published at: https://www.presidencia.gob.cu/es/

This platform will allow citizens to view the latest updates on Councils of State and Ministers meetings, as well as tweets from leading authorities.

First Deputy Minister of Communications, Wilfredo González Vidal, explained that, “We are in a moment of fulfillment of the first stage of electronic government in Cuba, that of presence.”

This process covers four stages: Presence, Interaction, Transaction and Transformation; each with easily identifiable elements that mark the goals and progress of government management using ICT, Ministry of Communications officials explained.

Today, all agencies, Central State Administration Bodies (OACE), and territorial governments (at the provincial level and the Isle of Youth Special Municipality), have an institutional web portal.

However, complex elements concerning both form and content have arisen in the implementation of this policy, and work is ongoing to ensure that by the end of the first quarter of 2019, this stage is declared complete.

In the second stage, communication and exchange mechanisms with users will be implemented, increasing the level of interaction, with the aim of facilitating procedures.

The transaction stage will guarantee online procedures and services, as well as the users’ simultaneous interaction with the government. Some of the key points of this stage are the possibility of users’ customization of portals, providing direct benefits such as personalization and notifications; sending information to registered users via email, text messages and electronic bulletins; the online submission of necessary forms for the services and procedures that each agency or entity offers, among others.

The fourth and final stage should lead to a change in the thought and actions of citizens and organizations, with government interaction through ICT raised to a higher level.

It is important to mention that achieving the first stage and then advancing through the other three represents a challenge not only in terms of infrastructure and ICT platforms, but also in terms of optimizing the internal management of state entities and the logistics to ensure compliance with that administration, specialists noted.

TERRITORIAL PROJECTS

The Computer Applications Company (DESOFT) has drawn up a work strategy that allows each provincial government to have a web portal to inform and interact with citizens, Elena Real Castro, company director in Pinar del Río, explained to Granma.

“This territory was at the forefront in this area, and it was decided to share the experience, since all provinces are part of the same government structure, in order to achieve standardization of the concept and work system,” she added.

In fact, the web portal of the Provincial Assembly of Pinar del Río, the Citizens’ Portal, was selected as a Champion Project by the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), and is up for one of its 2019 prizes.

The website was among the five most voted for projects in the category “The role of governments and all stakeholders in the promotion of ICTs for development.”

The Granma Division of DESOFT contributed the Delegate Management System to this great project, an application put into operation several years ago in that provincial government, which is now incorporated into all provincial portals.

More than 30 enterprises subordinated to Provincial Administration Councils have a presence in each of these public portals, informing, guiding, facilitating procedures and services, and encouraging citizen participation.

Elena Real Castro emphasized that the Delegate Management System is a package of four modules that facilitate the recording and control of all possible proposals, complaints and requests made by citizens, allowing for ongoing monitoring of issues by all authorities involved.

“Both the System and the provincial portals are connected to each other, and the integration of both solutions offers the possibility of obtaining information regarding the proposals made to delegates in their accountability and consultation processes. This encourages a closer government relationship with citizens and greater transparency in their administration,” she explained.

Three key players work to ensure the success of this project, the Pinar del Río director noted. Firstly, the Cuban Telecommunications Company (ETECSA) guarantees completely independent technological infrastructure, with security, availability, protection and backup of all the information that is handled.

Based on this technological infrastructure, DESOFT, using the virtual environment provided by ETECSA, provides governments with a technological platform, using a series of principles that offers the software as services, such that the use of these applications is characterized by the low-cost investments required, easy access, transparency, reliability, availability, interactivity, scalability, personalization, security and publicity, as Elena Real Castro explained.

As a third actor, and the main promoter of the project, the provincial government and its entities participate in order to incorporate citizens at the center of the transformations underway, making this environment increasingly inclusive. The provincial government is also responsible for ensuring the updating of the portal contents, and fostering a closer relationship with citizens and greater transparency in its administration.

A PROCESS FROM THE BOTTOM UP

Cuba’s Union of Computer Scientists (UIC) also plays a key role in the development of electronic government in Cuba. Given its cross-cutting nature, this organization that brings together computer and electronic specialists and those of other related specialties, has the opportunity to contribute “from the bottom up,” as its Vice President, Tatiana Delgado, noted.

This means, she added, supporting the training of local governments to understand the use and role of ICT in bringing them closer to citizens.

On the other hand, methodologies are shared to ensure a feasible process through the platforms and, above all, the services that can be generated to improve citizens’ quality of life. This process is also supported by evaluation tools and indicator systems, since it is of great interest to the UIC to stimulate innovation at the local level.

The Vice President of the organization referred to the huge role young computer sciences graduates can play in this process, by taking advantage of and putting into practice the knowledge acquired during their studies at different educational centers.

All these activities, Tatiana Delgado highlighted, are being carried out within an articulated platform for comprehensive territorial development, a framework project directed by the Ministry of Economy and Planning, of which the UIC is one of the associated national organizations.

“We have support from local governments and development groups, as well as from many entities. Together we act in accordance with this objective,” she explained.

GREATER WEB VISIBILITY

The “Cuban Website Monitor” is a computer platform that diagnoses the status of a group of variables and properties that must be taken into account in the development and administration of websites, to ensure better positioning in search engines, and thus greater content visibility, explained Ariagna González Landeiro, deputy director of Special Projects at the University of Computer Sciences (UCI).

Under this premise, the UCI has used the monitor in the implementation of the e-government presence stage, as a working tool that has provided systematic monitoring of Cuban websites.

“The results of the evaluations carried out on the websites have been shared at different times with the different territories, agencies and entities of the country,” González reported.

This tool has facilitated the grouping of Cuban digital spaces according to the province and the agencies to which they belong, fostering a specialized analysis in each case and as such, through exchanges, training, and advice on the use and positioning of websites, has helped identify a series of good practices adjusted to the characteristics of each entity, she added.

FUTURE PERSPECTIVES

There are still many challenges ahead this 2019. In the case of DESOFT, the company will continue working on the support, updating, maintenance, and technical stability of the e-government project, as well as the creation of municipal portals along the same lines as the provincial sites, maintaining the principles of scalability, interoperability, and security, among other requirements that were taken into account from the presence stage.

The integration of citizens’ portals into the Management System for the Electronic Programming Guide, E-progTv, developed for the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television, within the framework of Digital Television projects, is a task that will allow the population to access updated television programming schedules, including those of local channels, explained Elena Real Castro.

Deputy Minister Wilfredo González Vidal noted that work is focused on three lines, to systematically evaluate the access level and use of these portals by the population, which must maintain updated information and digital services for citizens, by reviewing their visibility, quality, and availability.

In addition, entities must organize user assistance processes, and respond to the population through the new digital communication means fostered by these portals, for which measures must be established that promote appropriate use.

Likewise, a work system must be organized or articulated with the main actors of the entity or territory in question, to keep citizens systematically informed of all of the government’s work, including the possibility of offering digital services. “That is, we must modernize public administration, offering services and encouraging the participation of citizens in these processes, as an exercise of transparency with the population,” the deputy minister stressed.

An example of the above is the new website of the Ministry of Justice at: https://www.minjus.gob.cu, which already offers online services related to criminal records, last will and testaments, and declarations of heirship.

“I believe that we have created the minimum conditions for the easiest stage, that of presence, but now it is necessary to continue working hard to computerize the internal and external processes of organizations, to give these government portals use value, and so that citizens feel the need and identify with these portals based on how up-to-date and useful the information and services they offer are,” concluded Wilfredo González Vidal.

TERRITORIAL WEBSITES

www.redpinar.gob.cu

www.redisla.gob.cu

www.artemisa.gob.

www.lahabana.gob.cu

www.mayaweb.gob.cu

www.matanceros.gob.cu

www.cienfuegos.gob.cu

www.soyvillaclara.gob.cu

www.espirituano.gob.cu

www.ciegodeavila.gob.cu

www.camaguey.gob.cu

www.lastunas.gob.cu

www.holguin.gob.cu

www.degranma.gob.cu

www.santiago.gob.cu

www.guantanamo.gob.cu

MEMBERS OF THE COUNCIL OF MINISTERS TWITTER ACCOUNTS:

Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez
@DiazCanelB
President

Salvador Valdés Mesa
@SalvadorValdesM
First Vice President

Ramiro Valdés Menéndez
@ValdesMenendez
Vice President

Inés María Chapman Waugh
@InesMChapman
Vice President

Ulises Rosales del Toro
@RosalesdelToro
Vice President

Roberto Morales Ojeda
@DrRobertoMOjeda
Vice President

Meisi Bolaños Weiss
@MeisiBWeiss
Minister of Finance and Prices

Alfredo López Valdés
@AlfredoLpezVald
Minister of Industry

Ena Elsa Velázquez Cobiella
@elsa_ena
Minister of Education

Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila
@EduardoR_Davila
Minister of Transport

Iris Quiñones Rojas
@irisqr700927
Minister of Food Industry

René Mesa Villafaña
@Rene_MesaMICONS
Minister of Construction

Irma Martínez Castrillón
@IrmaMartinezC
Minister-President of the Central Bank of Cuba

José Angel Portal Miranda
@japortalmiranda
Minister of Public Health

Oscar Silvera
@OscarCubaMinjus
Minister of Justice

Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla
@BrunoRguezP
Foreign Minister

Manuel Marrero Cruz
@MMarreroCruz
Minister of Tourism

Gustavo Rodríguez Rollero
@GustavoRollero
Minister of Agriculture

Elba Rosa Pérez Montoya
@ElbaRosaPM
Minister of Science, Technology and Environment

Alfonso Noya Martínez
@alfonso_noya
President of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT)

Margarita Marilene González Fernández
@MargaritaMGlez
Minister of Labor and Social Security

Antonio Rodríguez Rodríguez
@AntonioRdguezR
President of the National Institute of Hydraulic Resources

Rodrigo Malmierca Díaz
@R_Malmierca
Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment

Betsy Díaz Velázquez
@BetsyDazVelzqu1
Minister of Domestic Trade

Alejandro Gil Fernández
@AlejandroGilF
Minister of Economy and Planning

José Ramón Saborido Loidi
@jsaborido50
Minister of Higher Education

Raúl García Barreiro
@barreiro_raul
Minister of Energy and Mines

Jorge Luis Perdomo
@JorgeLuisPerd20
Minister of Communications

Alpidio Alonso Grau
@AlpidioAlonsoG
Minister of Culture

Very early on, Brazilian anthropologist Darcy Ribeiro warned that with the arrival of revolutionary technologies, “A true colonization is unfolding. The United States is playing its role with great efficiency, seeking complementarities that will make us permanently dependent on them,” adding, “Seeing this new civilization and all its threats, I fear that once again we will be peoples that do not gel – peoples that despite all our potential remain in second place.”

This scenario is linked to a program for Latin America and the Caribbean to control contents and the citizenry’s environments of participation, which is being implemented with total impunity, without the left paying even the slightest attention. In 2011, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee approved what is known in academic circles as an operation of “effective connectivity” – a plan outlined in a public Congressional document to expand use of new social media on the continent to promote U.S. interest in the region.

The document explains the interest in the continent’s social networks, “With more than 50% of the world’s population under 30 years of age, the new social media and technology resources that are so popular within this demographic group will continue to revolutionize communications in the future… Social media and technological initiatives based on political, economic, and social realities in Latin America will be crucial to the success of associated U.S. government efforts in the future.”

The plan summarizes the visit of a group of experts from several Latin American countries to the U.S. capitol to learn about policies and funding available in this arena, and concludes with specific recommendations for each of our countries that imply “minimizing critical risks of increased connectivity” for the United States, the leading government investing in infrastructure. The report noted that the number of social media users is growing exponentially, and that opportunities to influence political discourse and future policies are there for the taking.

What is behind this model of “effective” connectivity for Latin America? The vision of a human being as susceptible to domination via digital technology, and the clarity that so called social platforms are in no way neutral or providing a generic service, but are rather institutionalized and automated systems that design and manipulate connections, based on technological and ideological foundations.

What the U.S. government is projecting with its “operation” is the possibility that these tools create a simulated base and overthrow political systems that are not “convenient.” What role has it played in social media in the situations being faced today in Venezuela and Nicaragua, and in those we have seen previously in Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, and Argentina?

Only large corporations have the computing capacity to process the colossal volume of data we put onto social media, with every clic on a search engine, via our cell phones, debit cards, electronic chats, and emails. The accumulated tranches and data processed permit them to create value. More connections equal more social capital. But the fundamental interests behind open data and the invitations to “share,” “like,” or retweet, etc, are not those of users, but rather those of the corporations.

This power gives the proprietors an enormous advantage over users in the battle to control information. Cambridge Analytica, the London branch of a U.S. contractor devoted to active military operations online for more 25 years, has intervened in some 200 elections around the world. Psychological operations were its modus operandi. Its objective: change public opinion and influence not through persuasion, but via information control. The novelty is not the use of flyers, Radio Free Europe, or TV Martí, but rather Big Data and artificial intelligence to entrap every citizen who leaves traces of information on the web in a bubble that is observable, parametrically designed, and predictable.

Cambridge Analytica was involved in electoral processes in Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, and Mexico, working against left-wing leaders. In Argentina, for example, the company participated in Mauricio Macri’s 2015 campaign, creating detailed psychological profiles and identifying persons open to a change of opinion, with the goal of influencing them with fake news and partial selections of information. As soon as he took office, Macri approved a decree which allowed him to keep official bodies’ data bases for use in campaigns in his favor, one among many which allowed him to undermine the legal and institutional base of communications established by left governments in the country.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, politics have become techno-politics, their most cynical variant. Alexander Nix himself, Cambridge Analytica CEO, boasted to clients that things “don’t necessarily need to be true as long as they’re believed,” and emphasized an unquestionable, empirical fact: the decreasing credibility of commercial advertising is directly proportionate to the increase of publicity on social media, highly personalized and brutally effective.

Anyone who visits the webpage of Facebook’s associates (Facebook Marketing Partners) can discover hundreds of companies devoted to buying and selling data, and interacting with the blue thumbs-up company. Some have even specialized in geographical areas and countries, like the Cisneros Group, that participated in the 2002 coup against President Chávez in Venezuela, a reseller of Facebook that controls the advertizing market in 17 countries of the region.

WHAT IS TO BE DONE?

These topics are still far removed from professional debates and the programs of progressive movements on the continent. Speeches demonizing or enamored of the new technology civilization abound, but missing are strategies and programs leading to action to construct a truly sovereign information and communications model, and make new technologies our own.

We have not been able to concretize a fiber optic channel of our own, a dream of Unasur. Neither a systematic strategy or a consistent, reliable legal framework exist to minimize U.S. control; assure that traffic on the web flows between neighboring countries; promote the use of technologies that guarantee confidentiality of communications; protect the region’s human resources; and overcome obstacles to the commercialization of tools, content, and digital services produced in our back yard.

Nor has much progress been made on a common, supranational communicational agenda or platforms where it might be implemented. We need networks of observatories, which – in addition to gathering basic statistics and issuing alerts on the colonization of our digital space – would allow for the recovery and promotion of best practices in the use of these technologies and of resistance efforts in the region, on the basis of the understanding that the success or failure of challenges to these new inequalities depends on political decisions.

No country of the South by itself – and much less an isolated organization – can find the resources to challenge the power of the right that is mobilized with one click.

The debate over catastrophes and popular culture was transcended some time ago. The stable world described by Umberto Eco no longer exists.

There are several solutions on the horizon and one might be that of creating our own liberatory tools, but the search for and construction of such alternatives present more than technical-scientific problems. This route depends above all on collective action, in the medium and long run with both a tactical and strategic point of view, in favor of face-to-face and virtual communication that facilitates a change in social relations and technology to serve our peoples. Let’s do it, we don’t have much time.

( Por Rosa Miriam Elizalde)

Interestingly, these same mass media reported a few months ago, about the licenses granted by the US President to American companies in the sector to reach investment agreements with Cuban state company ETECSA in order to improve Internet on the Island (2).

And more recently, we´d read data reflecting a tangible improvement of connectivity in the country: “Cuba exceeded three million internet users (…) in 2014 by adding 125,000 new ones” (3) and that from the 118 currently navigation rooms, the Cuban population will have 300 public rooms navigation at end of 2015 (4); that have been recently authorized the first 35 public wi-fi access points (5); or that the connection fee has been lowered by almost 50 % of the last value (6).

Despite it´s still very modest global reach, growth are significant and the number of people that are using Internet in Cuba is now close to 28 % (7). From these data two conclusions that contradict the media discourse can emerge. The first one is that far from limiting or censor the Internet, the Cuban Executive has a clear desire to promote the network in line with its plans for economic development (8); and –in the same way- that the number one cause of low connectivity, the high cost of the service and technological backwardness had been (and still is) a consequence of the US blockade (9).

Several websites have published information on plans and strategies of the Cuban government -even under discussion- focused on the development of broadband in the island in the coming years, and that would include, among other objectives (10): reach for 2018 100% of broadband connectivity in strategic sectors of the country; and –an important data- extend connection to 50% of households with a cost that not exceed the 5 % of the average wage in 2020 (11).

But far from highlighting this upward projection, what do continue to highlight the international media? These media highlight that although rates –which have been reduced to half- are still extremely expensive; and that -despite that 28% of the population is already connected to Internet- only 5% of cuban population use to connect from their homes (12).

It seems that these means, looking that time -and arguments- are exhausted, are still clinging to a static photograph. Meanwhile, rapid changes in Cuban society are dismantled each and every one of the media myths (13) (14).

(1) http://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias/2014/10/141013_tecnologia_cuba_internet_falta_wifi_lv

(2) http://www.laopinion.com/2015/07/19/al-normalizar-relaciones-diplomaticas-propuesta-bipartidista-ampliaria-acceso-a-internet-en-cuba/

(3) http://www.elnuevoherald.com/noticias/mundo/america-latina/cuba-es/article31704482.html

(4) http://www.efe.com/efe/america/sociedad/cuba-proyecta-tener-mas-300-salas-navegacion-para-finales-2015/20000013-2530583

(5) http://www.eldiario.es/turing/cubanos-cuentan-zonas-internet-wi-fi_0_404909532.html

(6) http://www.20minutos.com/noticia/21146/0/cuba-reduce-mitad/precio-tasas/internet/

(7) https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anexo:Pa%C3%ADses_por_n%C3%BAmero_de_usuarios_de_Internet

(8) http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2014/12/12/editorial-de-granma-cuba-esta-decidida-a-conectarse-con-el-mundo/#.Ve1vin1GQ3g

(9) http://www.telesurtv.net/bloggers/Quien-bloquea-a-quien-Cuba-y-la-Internet-20150204-0002.html

(10) http://progresosemanal.us/20150608/estrategia-filtrada-el-camino-de-internet-en-cuba/

(11) http://www.chiringadecuba.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Estrategia-Nacional-de-la-Banda-Ancha-en-Cuba.pdf

(12) http://www.elmundo.es/blogs/elmundo/habaname/2015/08/21/wifi-callejero.html

(13) http://www.cubainformacion.tv/index.php/lecciones-de-manipulacion/52373-la-desbandada-que-no-se-produjo-en-cuba-tras-reforma-migratoria-descoloca-a-la-prensa-internacional

(14) http://www.cubainformacion.tv/index.php/lecciones-de-manipulacion/62806-cuba-itercer-pais-de-america-latina-en-plenitud-de-vida-para-homosexuales-o-regimen-homofobo-que-los-persigue

(José Manzaneda, Cubainformacion´s coordinator)

The tweets of the Venezuelan president, whose profile in the social network is @nicolasmaduro, are translated into English at @nicolasmaduro_en, French at @nicolasmaduro_fr, and Portuguese at @nicolasmaduro_pt.

On the eve of its 1st anniversary, the account of President Maduro exceeds 1,830,000 followers, thus making him one of the most popular and active of the region’s leaders on Twitter.

Venezuela is the world’s eighth largest country with more Twitter users, according to a report release by Comscore. Both President Maduro and his predecessor Hugo Chávez have used Twitter to immediately communicate with audiences in social networks, particularly local users.

Venezuela has the highest mobile penetration rate in Latin America, with over 30 million mobile telephone lines (102 lines per 100 inhabitants). 35% of Twitter users in the country access this network via mobile telephones.

Hugo Chávez, whose user was @chavezcandanga, was the first Latin American president who created a Twitter account on March 28th, 2010, and up until his death on March 5th, 2013, he sent an average of 2 tweets per day.

A rioter throws a rock at riot police in Clarence Road in Hackney on August 8, 2011 in London, England. Photo by Dan Istitene/Getty Images.

It all depends on who gets to name them.

Between November and December 2010 more than 50,000 students protested in London. Many were arrested and they denounced police brutality and repression.

Less than one year later, in August 2011, protests and riots broke all around London.

According to the BBC, by August 15th, 2011, about 3,100 people had been arrested, of whom more than 1,000 had been charged. There were accounted a total 3,443 crimes across London linked to the disorder. Emergency calls on Monday night saw a 300% increase, from 5,400 normally to 20,800. There were some deaths, and many more injured as a direct result of related violent acts. An estimated £200 million worth of property damage was incurred, and local economic activity was significantly compromised.

In both cases the rapid and violent social movement was lit and promoted through social media. Civil unrest finds efficient contagion and mass movement dynamics thanks to the enabling technologies.

The general way in which these whole episodes were described by the British government, along with most western media was about ‘terrorists, hooligans, people clearly overstepping their right to protest’. The Daily Telegraph, a mainstream British newspaper, even described Twitter as being an outlet for promoting gang violence…

The repressive action by the state was swift, and certainly the numbers of arrests attest to a zero tolerance approach to reestablishing order in the City. Why let a minority of 50 thousand people take over London and paralyze everyone else?

According to the Western press, those who attempt against the local patrimony of Venezuela are “peaceful demonstrators”. Photo: ACN.

Cut to Caracas, Venezuela, 2014.

Violent protests take on the streets for several consecutive days. The number of violent protesters surely does not even reach 50,000. They build trash and fire barricades to block streets stopping the free transit of the 6 million inhabitants of the city. They even install barbed wire above the streets between trees. They go as far as to tweet that it should be done at the right height to ‘stop’ motorcycles. A few motorcycle drivers, oblivious to the almost invisible guillotine, drive into a horrible beheading.

These violent protests seem to have no aim, and no demands. Some opposition leaders and especially radical groups piggy back on them and start to request president Maduro to resign, and to step down for violating Human Rights.

In this case, most western governments and most western media side with the group of rioters (demonstrators?). In western media, it is widely assumed that the Government in Venezuela is indeed violating human rights, and that the “oppressed majority” has just spilled out in the streets to demand freedom and regime change. This is not only fair, it is a sort of ‘Venezuelan Spring’.

Nothing is further from the truth. The narrative in western media is a fantasy.

It is true that Venezuela is a politically polarized environment where certainly there is a sizable and relevant portion of the population that opposes the government of Maduro. There is also a relevant and sizeable portion of the population that supports the government of Maduro. An election just a few months ago, gave the government more than 56% of the popular vote nationwide. Historically, since Maduro won the presidency in April 2013 all pollsters have measured his approval ratings between 45% and 60%. So even if he was right now at the lowest level ever, he would be significantly above say, Obama’s current approval rating.

Shall we then condone if a little group representing a minority (or even if it represented a majority) of people go out in the streets of Washington DC and demand regime change? “Obama go home?”

Of course not.

So how come we, the progressive world, condone it for other countries?

What would Washington do if the hypothetical DC riots, not only demanded Obama to step down, with say 50 thousand violent demonstrators, plus the “moral authority” of Obama’s approval being currently below 42%? What if in addition the NSA had intercepted communications from a foreign government and some foreign multinational that was funding the rioters… (as Venezuela claims the riots are being funded)?

The answer is obvious, and it should be obvious for any government around the world, be it Turkey or the United states, be it Ukraine or the UK, be it Venezuela or China. It should also be obvious to the self-righteous western media that has self-appointed itself as the guardians of democracy. They shall defend constitutionally elected governments, and should definitely support regime change in the only way that democracy permits it: through constitutional methods, like in the next general election.

Why is it that we don’t think about ousting unpopular governments via violent protests in the G8? This seems, after all, to be the method of choice for the rest of the world; especially if the leader in question is not one of the ‘good guys’ as per the mainstream media characterization?

Who is calling for regime change in Saudi Arabia, in spite of the fact that that is a clear dictatorship of many decades? No one -because they are with the ‘good guys’.

But if it is president Viktor Yanukovich of Ukraine, then, lets kick him out of power. Democracy can go to hell there. He is pro-Russian and worst, a friend of Putin, a very clear and unforgivable crime. So let’s support a coup and get him out of power.

The difference between rioters and peaceful demonstrators seems to be in the eye of the beholder. But we all knew that already. What we in the West seem to forget is that we should apply the same standards to all countries. Invading Iraq, supporting a coup in Egypt, or pushing for regime change of a constitutionally elected Government is not an act of democracy. It will not contribute to peace, and it will only tarnish the reputation of Europe, the US and their media in the rest of the world. This, in turn, could be used by extremists to justify new 9/11 style attacks on the west, and the vicious circle will start to roll again.

* Josh R. Nelson, Irish, is a freelance journalist based in Caracas.