By Luis Rodolfo Cabrera Juárez
About two years ago, when I was beginning to explore social networks, on Facebook I stumbled upon the Yemen page of Mrs. Marcela de Witt, and through it I learned about the very serious humanitarian crisis that the people of Yemen are going through, immersed in a civil war. Since its inception in 2015, through certain alternative means of information on the Internet, I have been following this military conflict, in which the success of the resistance of the Yemeni army, allied to the Ansar -a- Alllah movement, is evident. However, in these cold military statistics, the humanitarian tragedy that war implies, whatever its justification, is not very visible. Really, I was horrified by the data and images shared by Mrs. de Witt, and I couldn’t help but wonder why such a situation is systematically hidden by the vast majority of the mass media around the world.
Driven by this concern, I researched many websites, and established the existence of multiple political and economic factors involved in the war in Yemen, which prompted the Arab monarchies to intervene in the civil war in this country, in order to support the overthrown government, related to their interests, a project that failed in the face of the courageous and unwavering attitude of the Yemeni people in defense of their sovereignty.
Faced with this situation, the genocidal regime of Saudi Arabia, supported by that of the United Arab Emirates, choose to establish a total economic blockade of the territories controlled by the Yemeni resistance, which has caused the worst humanitarian tragedy of today. To the thousands of deaths of civilians caused by the criminal bombardment of cities and towns, there are added those caused by famine, disease and other deprivations to which the martyred people of Yemen are subjected, in what constitute war crimes , leading to genocide. It is evident that the immense economic power of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates is an insurmountable brake on the intervention of Western governments (i.e. the United States and Europe) to stop the genocide of the Yemeni people. The mere mention of this could lead to the withdrawal of the economic assets of these Arab countries from the “democratic” Western countries, causing their economies to collapse. The infamous Mohamed bin Salman has already threatened the US government with such a move, on the occasion of other differences. On the other hand, Saudi Arabia is the main buyer of US and British weapons, which are used to kill the people of Yemen, and this is another powerful factor that nullifies the global intervention against this genocidal war. The same can be said of other powerful states, such as Russia, China, India, Japan, etc., whose economic interests are linked to temporary alliances with the Arab monarchies of the Gulf, especially Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Iran and other less powerful Muslim states are honorable exceptions.
Given the seriousness of the situation, one would expect a massive reaction from global society demanding an end to this inhumane blockade, which has only recently been eased through a two-month truce, often broken by the Saudi military. However, this is not the case, and global indifference reigns completely.
I want to deep into the informatic concealment mechanism, which is not exclusive to the Yemen crisis, of course.
First of all, we must remember that the world’s mass media are owned by a small group of oligarchs, who systematically use them to promote their global economic and political interests. It is no secret to anyone that the so-called “democratic governments” are just facades of the power held by the world oligarchy, integrated into “globalized imperialism.” These governments are almost always chosen through advertising campaigns with huge budgets, financed by those obscure characters that almost nobody dares to talk about, by the way.
The mass media exert practically absolute power in the collective consciousness of humanity as a whole, and have determined the construction of an extremely consumerist and hedonistic society, where suffering is avoided at any cost. And to forget about it, there are resources of massive alienation such as entertainment, religion, vices… and so many more.
It is not surprising that most people avoid seeing verbal, and especially graphic, information about situations of extreme suffering of other human beings, because this means sharing that suffering (hence the term “compassion”). And if at any time said information somehow reaches them, the defense mechanism of “denial” kicks in, which consists of disqualifying the information received as false. However, these same media outlets do not hesitate to spread information about tragic situations, in a totally morbid and distorted way, when it suits the interests of the oligarchy, as happened after the start of the war in Ukraine. And the drastic drop in media coverage of this crisis is evident, because it clearly no longer suits the vested interests around it.
It is necessary to note that the intelligence agencies of all governments are actively involved in the management of the media, highlighting among them the abominable US CIA, due to its vast resources of all kinds. In this way, a very complex and efficient structure has been built to control the mentality of global society, whose power is only challenged by universal access to the Internet, especially social networks, which constitute a valuable vehicle for information and exchange. ideological, to the point of being a historical milestone, only comparable to the invention of the printing press five centuries ago.
But the reaction of the established powers has not been long in coming, and free expression is already being limited through social networks, mainly on Facebook , which happens to be the largest in the world. I myself have experienced such repression several times, in the form of temporary blockades. The most recent ones were provoked precisely by posting explicit photos of Yemeni children torn apart by Saudi aircraft bombing, which allegedly broke Facebook ‘s rules regarding the publication of “nudity and sexual activity”.
Certainly, we are immersed in a global information war, where combat tactics and strategies are applied, similar to a military conflict. And in the same way, courage and resilience are necessary in it to withstand the offensive of a much more powerful enemy, who uses immense resources to silence the conscience of humanity. Awakening it from its slumber is a very difficult task, but not impossible, as the case of South Africa demonstrates, and currently that of Palestine, whose cause is gaining momentum globally, through the BDS movement.
I am a citizen of a very small country, Guatemala, which has been subjected for decades to the power of an oligarchy backed by US imperialism, which even provoked a genocidal war against the majority indigenous population. For that reason, I experience as my own the suffering of all the oppressed peoples of the world, as recommended by Commander Ernesto “Che” Guevara. And I look forward to seeing the dawn for the people of Yemen, and the end of this nightmare. In the meantime, I will continue to do my “ant job”, publicizing this tragedy, but at the same time the heroic struggle of the Yemeni people for their sovereignty and freedom.
Luis Rodolfo Cabrera Juárez
luiscabrera8412972@gmail.com
