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In Cumanacoa nobody is hungry, at least that is what chavismo wants to make people think on social media. After the tragedy in this community in the state of Sucre, which on July 2 was devastated by the overflowing of the Manzanares river, the Maduro regime has drawn up a strategy similar to the one applied in Tejerías in November 2022.
In addition to closing access to the independent media and to people seeking to bring aid to this community in crisis, Chavismo saw in the tragedy the opportunity to coordinate a propaganda campaign online that pretends to sell a supposedly timely humanitarian attention to the contingency.
#CumanacoaSaturadaDeComida” was positioned on different platforms and was amplified by at least 20 governmental entities ranging from: CLAP pages, accounts of foundations, socialist companies, vice ministries and directorates attached to the Ministry of Food.
In contrast to this campaign, civil society organizations and independent media denounced how police officers evicted journalists from the area, closing the way for people who wanted to bring aid.
Government agencies align online
On July 6, four days after the tragedy in Cumanacoa, we identified in our monitoring in X the trend #CumanacoaSaturadaDeComida, concentrating more than 1,000 tweets led by accounts such as the CLAP page of Aragua and being amplified by more than 20 Venezuelan governmental entities.
The message around the label stated that thanks to the support of the Ministry of People’s Power for Food and Minister Carlos Leal Tellería “the needs of all the families in the area were being met”.
The use of the tag was not restricted exclusively to X, on the contrary, a deeper study revealed that it corresponded to a multi-platform campaign present in the main social media platforms.
We obtained a sample of 1,766 mentions that used the hashtag #CumanacoaSaturadaDeComida; Instagram was the social network with the highest concentration in driving this narrative with 82.9% of the mentions (1,464), this was followed by X with 12.85% of the mentions obtained (227), then by TikTok with 3.57% (63), and finally on Facebook 0.68% were registered in 12 mentions.
The most used words in the messages were: drinking water (with 819 mentions), food water (with 743), cumanacoa saturated (with 498), food mission (with 458), Nicolas Maduro (with 444), president Nicolas (with 380), food security (with 228), cumanacoa people (with 171), among others.
Additionally, more than 25% of the content obtained has some kind of mention of Nicolás Maduro. This occurs precisely at a time when chavismo is seeking to boost even more the figure of Maduro on social media in view of the presidential elections.
Coordinated campaign: inauthentic accounts drive good management in Cumanacoa
In the analysis carried out, three instagram users took the lead with the most mentions of the hashtag within the registered sample. In first place is @osiiamaya, who made 8 mentions that reached approximately 528 accounts. In second place is @oscarevelasquezv with 5 mentions that reached 35 people.
When observing these first two accounts, it is possible to identify patterns that characterize the behavior of inauthentic or fake accounts, such as having no profile pictures, little time of creation, publication of the same content repeatedly, and few followers. Even in the case of the “Oscar Velásquez” account, it can be seen that it follows two other accounts with the same name but different user with similar characteristics (account 1 and 2).
Likewise, the account of the Inspectorate of the Ministry of Food for the state of Táchira generated 510 impressions through 5 mentions. Also noteworthy were the official accounts of the Inspectorate of the Ministry of Food for the state of Bolivar with 4 mentions that generated 936 impressions, the account of the Vice Ministry of Food Production and Commercialization Policies of the Ministry of Food, which with its account in X and through 2 mentions generated 5,088 impressions.
Accounts of governmental entities are aligned in one voice
In the search, the list of accounts of Venezuelan government entities identified as promoting the hashtag #CumanacoaSaturadaDeComida is extensive:
Dinesa, Fundaproal Anzoátegui, Fundaproal Táchira, Fundaproal Carabobo, Fundaproal Apure, Fundaproal (main), CLAP Carabobo, Vice-Ministry of Enterprises and Services of the Ministry of Food, Fundaproal Sucre, National Superintendence of Agri-Food Management (SUNAGRO) Apure of the Ministry of Food, Fundaproal Monagas, CLAP of the San Francisco municipality of Zulia state, Inspectorate of the Ministry of Food for the state of Zulia, Mercal Portuguesa, Territorial Directorate of the Ministry of Food for the state of Barinas, CLAP Nueva Esparta, CLAP Cabimas, Mercal Sucre, Inspectorate of the Ministry of Food for the state of Apure, among many other accounts linked to the Ministry of Food were aligned in a single message.
They all shared exactly the same type of messages, templates, photos, and videos, and mostly concentrated their campaign on instagram, as observed in the hyperlinked cases.
Fundaproal (Fundación Programa de Alimentos Estratégicos attached to the Ministry of Food) used the same video in several accounts but with variations in the accompanying message, maintaining the mention of the “instruction of President Nicolás Maduro”.
The use of the cover of “Sucre es noticia” was also repetitive in publications with the hashtag #CumanacoaSaturadaDeComida:
As well as Fundaproal, several CLAP accounts used the same image in different publications:
This coordinated operation was also present by the hand of CLAP accounts on TikTok, highlighting the official Mercal account, the CLAP account in Zulia (using the same video as the Mercal account), CLAP Caracas (with the photo used on Instagram by the CLAP accounts), and CLAP Nueva Esparta.
The analysis shows an evident coordination of governmental entities attached or linked to the Ministry of People’s Power for Food in this campaign through the use of the hashtag “#CumanacoaSaturadaDeComida” (#CumanacoaSaturatedFood).
Is Cumanacoa saturated with food?
The reality in Cumanacoa is complex and the Maduro government has been given the task of controlling the narrative surrounding the flooding of the Manzanares River, which left seven dead, 7,990 families affected, some 8,000 houses damaged and 360 completely destroyed for the time being.
During his visit to the area on Tuesday, July 9, Maduro promised to recover and rebuild “house by house” everything that was destroyed. He also spoke about the need to maintain the Special Food Saturation Plan, a speech aligned with the label that government agencies and inauthentic accounts were promoting in previous days.
However, videos about the restriction of aid, the population’s rejection of Chavista figures and the citizen protest are also being disseminated on social media.
For example, on July 5, the Fundación Servidores del Corazón was denied access, even though they were carrying food prepared for the victims and denounced that they would lose it. On the other hand, two days before Maduro’s arrival in Cumanacoa, the governor of Sucre was booed by several inhabitants of the sector. Finally, on July 7, a protest took place on the main avenue of Cumanacoa. The reason? Lack of drinking water and governmental attention.
#SUCRE | Cerrado el paso en ARENAS, municipio Montes. Funcionarios de seguridad impiden el paso de ayuda
Miembros de la Fundación Servidores de Corazón denuncian la situación ya que llevan comida preparada y la están perdiendo #Cumanacoa #Alerta #05Julio pic.twitter.com/R1febB7jhN
— ARIANA AGREDA (@ariana_agreda) July 5, 2024
Journalists expelled and allegations of corruption
In the midst of the tragedy in Cumanacoa, journalists have also been attacked. Control of the narrative of what is happening in Cumanacoa means not being able to report beyond the official report.
Andrea Fabbiani, director of the media Atarraya Oficial, and Víctor González, correspondent of the portal La Patilla, both journalists from Sucre state, were taken from Cumanacoa while they were covering the tragedy. Armed men in civilian clothes put them in a PNB patrol car and left them on the outskirts of the sector.
In spite of all these irregularities, the authorities assured that “many lives” were saved thanks to the preventive actions taken. The vision of several neighbors of the State of Sucre is different. The infrastructure failures in Cumanacoa and the lack of investment have been evident to them.
In 2012, the overflowing of the Manzanares River left two dead in Cumanacoa, as well as 400 families affected and 35 victims. From that place, Chávez promised the construction of houses far from the Manzanares River for the affected families, a millionaire fund to repair the affected houses, the construction of a contention wall and an aqueduct, as well as the recovery of roads, bridges, as well as the dredging of the river. None of this happened.
This analysis reveals how the Cumanacoa tragedy has been used by the regime to boost the figure of Nicolás Maduro in social networks in the midst of an electoral campaign that will end with the presidential election on July 28.
For more information on socio-political manipulation online you can follow us at @ProBoxVE
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