Accessing NPR's Recent Venezuela Coverage
NPR reporting on the crisis in Venezuela over the last several months has raised an outsized number of complaints. Are listeners getting the fullest picture of the political turmoil and its contributing factors? Is NPR directly or indirectly, as some listeners believe, helping make the case for White House intervention in the political affairs of another country?
This office looked back at several months of the coverage of the international story. The reporting is ongoing: NPR's All Things Considered sent a team to the Venezuelan/Colombian border in March for a series of in-depth reports that continues to air this week. For some audience members, these reports only addressed one concern among many, and sparked some new ones.
A complicated history
Venezuela's is a complex crisis to follow, involving internal constitutional maneuvering, years of financial mismanagement, and, layered on top, worldwide political jockeying tied to the country's vast oil reserves. In January, military-backed President Nicolás Maduro prepared for his second inauguration following an . Days before the swearing-in, Venezuelan National Assembly leader Juan Guaidó declared himself the country's president, invoking a. The U.S. was among the to back Guaidó. Since then, have acknowledged Guaidó as the leader of Venezuela, including the (11 other regional countries, plus Canada) and members of the European Union. (Maduro still has support from China and Russia.)
