Curiously, America’s top Spanish-language networks Univision and Telemundo have so far failed to inform their viewers that socialist Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has issued a ringing endorsement of the presidential candidacy of his comrade in the United States, Bernie Sanders.
Praising the Democrats’ socialist candidate for President of the United States as “our revolutionary friend” Tuesday night, the President of Venezuela’s latest comments expand on previous remarks last February, when he called Sanders "an emerging candidate with a renovating and revolutionary message."
In his latest salvo, Maduro cloaked his endorsement of Sanders in a dig at the U.S. electoral system, saying as reported by Reuters that "if the elections were free ... Bernie Sanders would be President of the United States."
The comments by Maduro come as Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are facing off in the upcoming June 7 California primary, with polls having Clinton ahead of the Vermont Senator. Sanders has come out swinging, saying that even if he does not win in California or New Jersey, he will keep fighting all the way to convention.
Instead of covering this development of direct political interest to their viewers, Univision and Telemundo chose instead to report on the latest action by Organization of American States (OAS) Secretary General Luis Almagro, who is now calling on the OAS to evaluate whether Venezuela has suffered “an unconstitutional alteration of the constitutional regime that seriously impairs the democratic order." This in light of the Maduro government’s efforts to block a constitutionally mandated recall referendum, which should be triggered as a result of Maduro’s opponents recently gathering the required number of signatures to force such a referendum.
