UPDATED 22:19 | The Chinese virus seems to be impacting editorial desks at Reuters in Brazil and Mexico. See the latest headline, “Libre Abordo de México announces bankruptcy, termination of exchange with Venezuela,” reported by “… Ana Isabel Martínez, written by Marianna Parraga; edited by Dan Flynn and Lisa Shumaker.” Flynn and Shumaker identify themselves as editors. I have news for Martinez, Parraga, Flynn, and Shumaker: drug cartels do not go bankrupt.
The rush by Reuters editors to publish any press release they received from Alex Saab, without first qualifying the involved parties or questioning their claims, illustrates the type of “journalism” produced today by supposedly serious and reputable organizations.
Venezuela will present the bankruptcy of a Mexican company to the ICC as evidence that U.S. sanctions do not allow humanitarian exceptions.
UPDATED 22:19: If there was any doubt about how unfounded the entire “bankruptcy” claim of Libre Abordo is, the Venezuelan Ministry of Foreign Affairs has just announced it will take the “bankruptcy” case of Libre Abordo to the International Criminal Court. Reuters did not find it appropriate to question Saab’s spokespeople, so we did:
Questions about the ‘bankruptcy’ of Libre Abordo:
1- When was the bankruptcy declared?
2- Where exactly was the bankruptcy filed?
3- When was the last charge from Schlager lifted?
4- How long has Libre Abordo had that ‘90 million’ debt?
5- Who financed Libre Abordo’s operations?
6- Who called for payment? 🧵 https://t.co/Z7OG7F2rXI
– Alek Boyd (@infodi0) June 1, 2020
Taking the defense -before the International Criminal Court- of a highly questionable Mexican shell company by Venezuela is not only unprecedented but almost certainly outside the jurisdiction of that court. However, that is the pull of Alex Saab with the Maduro regime: a shell entity declares bankruptcy to the press, without providing any details regarding the related administrative process; the next thing we know is that Venezuela takes it to present its “bankruptcy” case to an international court that deals with genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and the crime of aggression.
We wonder what the stance of the government of Andrés Manuel López Obrador is, if any, on this matter. After all, Libre Abordo and its affiliate Schlager claim to be Mexican companies, established in 2010, with demonstrable backgrounds… However, the Wayback Machine tells a different story. There are only two captures of the site libreabordomexico.com, in April and May 2020. No earlier record can exist, as this “established in 2010” company only registered its domain on December 12, 2019.