Source: Sputnik Mundo
What it’s about: This article claims that the majority of Venezuelan migrants have returned home to Venezuela, per a statement made by Pascualino Angiolillo Fernández, Venezuela’s secretary general of defense during a press conference in Russia. The article states that in the last 10 months, more than 14,000 migrants have returned to Venezuela through state-sponsored program “Plan Vuelta a la Patria.” The article also claims that the UN report stating that 4 million Venezuelans have fled the country was manipulated and omitted information.
Why it’s false: This article, in its entirety, is false. The public information on the number of Venezuelans who returned home under “Vuelta a la patria” is all published by state entities, so we cannot be sure if these numbers are true. They are likely magnified to benefit the Maduro regime. In addition, a UN report published on June 19th, 2019 states that more than 4 million people have fled Venezuela. Even if 14,000 Venezuelan migrants have in fact returned to their country, that is nowhere near a majority of 4 million.
These false claims not only show that the Maduro regime is not willing to acknowledge the severity of the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, but also highlight the ways that Russian media will post anything to support the regime, even if it has not been corroborated by any other news source. There is no evidence that the UN report was in anyway manipulated, it was a collective report published with the support of multiple stakeholders who have no reason to omit any information.