Source: Sputnik Mundo
What it’s about: This article relates to the latest developments from the protests in Nicaragua that have resulted in the deaths of over a dozen protesters at the hands of government-sponsored security forces in recent days. The article includes comments made by Barcelona’s mayor, Ada Colau, calling for European countries to protest Daniel Ortega’s government’s handling of the crisis. It loops in commentary made by Twitter users criticizing Colau’s tweet and call her out for involving herself in Nicaraguan internal affairs.
What’s misleading about it: This article is misleading because it disregards the basis for Colau’s criticism of the Nicaraguan government’s response to protests and amplifies support for Ortega’s regime. Rather than reporting on current events in Nicaragua, the article brings in commentaries made by popular yet obscure twitter users (100k+ followers) that frame Colau’s comments as interventionist despite the fact that her comments followed a series of other international responses to the recent killings of protestors in Managua. Leaders from the European Union, Costa Rica, and Chile have also spoken against the escalation of violence in Nicaragua, but the Sputnik article says nothing about the protests, effectively diverting readers’ attention from the issue on the ground in Nicaragua.