Brazil’s Poor, the World Cup and TeleSUR

Jimmy Roque Martínez

HAVANA TIMES –The World Cup in Brazil will soon be over. The news network TeleSUR has followed the sporting event enthusiastically. According to this “left-wing” broadcaster, the soccer championship is something that makes the people of Brazil and Latin America “proud.”

Curiously, TeleSUR has made next to no mention of those who were forced to leave their homes so that the multi-million-dollar sports facilities could be built. Nor has it followed the constant protests staged by the part of Brazil’s population that is against this World Cup and the repression they have been subjected to by the country’s military.

The news network makes no mention of the billions of dollars spent on the Cup, at a time when thousands live in abject poverty across the country, many in plain sight, at the side of the city’s luxurious avenues.

Something similar takes place when TeleSUR reports on Cuba: everything is positive. There is no talk of the profound difficulties we face or of the criticisms Cuban citizens’ level at the government’s policies.

The initial idea behind this television network was to promote the integration of Latin America and cover the social struggles there truthfully. Seeing the uncritical news on the governments that finance the network makes me think the program caters to the interests of these governments and not their peoples.

Could it be we’re dealing with the integration of the governments of Latin America, and not of its peoples?

TeleSUR may be an alternative to the mass media owned by transnational companies, but it certainly does not represent the peoples of the region. This late in the game, no one has any doubt that states and peoples are two different things.

Brazil’s displaced populations cannot turn to the big media or the network that ought to be their ally, TeleSUR. The very few times it has even tackled the issue, it has done it with an extremely low profile, in a manner identical to the way in which Miami’s media have done so, to mention an example.

I am not against having TeleSUR broadcast the World Cup, but I believe it should try to tackle the problems this sporting event has caused Brazil’s poor in a more in-depth manner. That should be its priority, for it is an issue that affects it’s raison d’etre, the dispossessed.

TeleSUR, like anything owned and paid for by those in power, makes concessions to the interests of the powerful. However, the Cuban press has been discredited to such an extent, is so sterile and uncritical, that the multinational chain, shortcomings and all, has a greater audience than our local news.

According to a Cuban government leader, the Cuban press does not lie, it merely does not divulge all of the information. As though that weren’t a form of lying!

TeleSUR was good news for us and it’s the best we’ve got, but it also does not provide us with all of the important information about the difficulties faced by the peoples of Latin America. Who, then, will report on the lot of the wretched of the earth?