Source: Sputnik Mundo
What it’s about: The article is about Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s response to Colombian President Ivan Duque’s comment on solving the crisis in Venezuela. During an interview, President Duque said that the solution to resolve the crisis in Venezuela was not a military intervention at the hands of a foreign government, he instead called on the Venezuelan military to defect from the Maduro regime and support the government of opposition leader Juan Guaidó.
Why it’s misleading: The article itself was not misleading, but the headline is. By saying that “Maduro asked the Venezuelan armed forces to respond to Duque with ‘force,’” Sputnik Mundo is insinuating that Maduro asked the country’s military to attack Duque/Colombia though a military operation. However, in the body of the article we see Maduro’s actual quote which states “I authorize every component of the [Venezuelan armed forces] to respond to Ivan Duque with all of its with all its moral force.” Moral force and military action are two completely different things that aren’t interchangeable, unless a key word is omitted. Sputnik could very well be trying to use the fact that a number of people online share articles without reading them.