September 2013

Media Manipulation 102: The Viral Images That Shook Colombia’s Social Networks

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On Colombia’s largest TV news source Caracol there is a segment called ASI SE MUEVE LOS REDES or THIS IS HOW NETWORKS MOVE which parades tweets that are trending and memes making rounds around social networks.

In the midst of the nation wide protests that gripped the country for three weeks this segment became a tool to whitewash what was really moving on social networks and manufacture consent to conform with claims deliberately belittling the size of the protests.

The most famous claim was when President Santos stated “this national strike does not exist.” which set off a tidal wave of memes and even youtube videos that rippled around social networks.

Despite getting thousands of shares none of them made the cut for Caracol TVs social media show so we decided to compare some with those that did.

Caracol News vs Chekhovs Kalashnikov

The following memes, tweets, and Facebook images were selected on September 2nd and compared with Caracol TVs selection for the same day. A more scientific comparative analysis would compare tweets with tweets and Facebook with Facebook but we believe the programs unprecedented focus on just twitter was because this network took second place to Facebook during the strikes.

CARACOLS CHOICE: The first pick on Caracols THIS IS HOW NETWORKS MOVE is a North American businessman who paid to promote various irate tweets in English against British Airways when they lost his fathers luggage.

CHEKHOVS CHOICE: With over a thousand more shares and likes that same day we have picked an image and quote of Cesar Pachon, a potato farmer from Boyaca who led the protests in the province and states: “We are capable of making a house, we dont need them to give us one, with our own work we are capable of buying it. Dont worry about food because we are capable of feeding this country” – translation: we dont need welfare, we need just policies that don’t bankrupt farmers.
cesar-pachon

CARACOLS CHOICE: Next up on the program was a cameo from Caracols favorite post-Chavez-punching-bag, Nicolas Maduro, showcasing the Venezuelan Presidents announcement over twitter who is now tweeting English, French, and Portuguese to accompany his mother tongue.

Caracols social media team then scoured twitter to find a mildly popular meme taking the piss out of Maduro the Polyglot´s letter to Obama:
“TUBAZOOOOO OBAMA RECEIVES THE LETTER FROM THE POLYGLOT @NicolasMaduro”
https://twitter.com/THELAWYER41/status/374925770054852609

president-santos

CHEKHOVS CHOICE: The same day an image with 1,266 likes 786 shares of President Santos looking like the psychopathic clown from Stephen Kings IT appeared.

Two days after September 2nd a Gallup poll put the approval rating of President Santos at 21 percent down 27 percentage points from the previous poll.

The Wall Street Journal called it “the lowest level recorded for a Colombian president for more than a decade” which may be worrying news for the editors at Caracol as Juan Manuel Santos enters an election year.

Kalashnikov Analysis: HOW NETWORKS REALLY MOVE


Analysing social networks inside Colombia during these strikes and its obvious that much of the citizen journalism documenting the police and ESMAD brutality originates on Facebook.

These photographs and videos are uploaded by individuals (students, youths, professionals) and make ripples around their respective social networks until they are picked up by larger Facebook groups like Young Revolutionaries in Action.

These larger Facebook groups are also becoming the first point of contact for many citizen journalists seeking a wider reach for their photos and videos of the protests.

That means Facebook groups like Soy Estudiante, Jovenes Revolucionarios, and Red Boyaca are becoming the primary source for unfiltered news for many Colombians irrespective of their demographic and location.

Given that the size of each of these platforms grew exponentially during the three week protests the Colombian government may already see them as a threat to controlling the narrative over the mainstream communication mediums.
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Media Manipulation 101: The Injured Youth and the Rise of Citizen Journalism in Colombia

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injured-youth2 On the 29th of August hours after the protests in the Plaza de Bolivar in Bogota a video of a seriously injured youth known only as the “Joven Herido” started making waves around social networks.

The protests had turned violent and depending on which side of the barricade you stood the blame laid at the feet of either the disproportional force of the ESMED Riot Police or a “cartel of vandals” that had infiltrated the protests and caused the militarization of Bogota.

From that protest the story of the Injured Youth became one of the most viewed, commented, and shared videos to come out of the two week nation wide strikes that had engulfed the country. A closer look at the coverage of the Joven Herido is essential to understand the media war underway between the mainstream broadcast media and Colombia’s citizen journalists.

How to Direct the Narrative in News

As the video of the Injured Youth went viral concerned citizens across Colombia began asking who he was, what happened to him, and if he was okay.

El Espectador, the oldest newspaper in Colombia as well as one of its biggest and most influential, was the only big mainstream communication medium to publish the video. Here is a comparative analysis between the coverage between El Espectador and a small citizen media outlet called Reporteros24 which bills itself as “the social network of citizen journalism from latinos for latinos”

El Espectador published the video on the 29th at 6:55 pm and later tweeted it at 9:15 and 11:53. Reporteros24 on the other hand published the video on the 30th at 6:06pm and tweeted it at 7:13.

The difference between the language they used:


“Youth Injured During Bogota Protests”


“In Video: Youth Injured During Bogota Protests”


“Shocking images of a seriously injured youth during the Agrarian Protests in Bogotá”

If you add 27 + 19 + 23 for the amount of retweets each got above and divide by 3 you get number 23. This makes Reporteros24 tweet the mean. Now note that the twitter account of El Espectador has 1,220,417 followers while Reporteros24 has 1,803 and do the maths – In statistics tweets like El Espectadors are called Outliers.

[pullquote]out·li·er [out-lahy-er] noun:
an observation that is well outside of the expected range of values in a study or experiment, and which is often discarded from the data set.”
[/pullquote]
This is the power of using vague and ambigious language on twitter over its descriptive and contextual opposite – its designed to be discarded.

Now lets compare the landing pages for the Youtube video on both El Espectador and Reporteros24:
[quote]”El Espectador was unable to confirm this information independently, but decided to publish it for its news value. The content below may find upsetting.” El Espectador[/quote]

[quote]This video circulating on social networks, shows the severity of injuries sustained while this young man participated in marches in support of agricultural strike in Bogota. Apparently tear gas exploded near the boy’s face. The images can hurt your sensitivity. Reporteros24 can not independently confirm the veracity, date or place of this material. Reporteros24[/quote]

Here we can give El Espectador the benefit of the doubt in that they published the video the night of the protests (a day before Reporteros24) and legitimately had no information about the boy. However for the most viewed, shared, and commented video that the newspaper published one might think its “news value” meant it deserved a follow up to find out what happened to the boy.

Colombia’s oldest newspaper however was too busy publishing article after article about the colourfully dubbed a “cartel of vandals” guilty of throwing rocks and wrecking public property and even included the video apology of a 15 year old boy whose “reprehensible action” was to graffiti “long live the strike” on a wall which was news worthy enough to get its own article.

Network Anomalies on El Espectador

Four days later and the view-count of the Injured Youth video was rapidly climbing everywhere except newspaper El Espectador where various network anomalies saw the piece fluctuate between 27,000 and 11,000 shares. A few days later still the view count started to fluctuate between 11,000 and 4,000 shares and now sits steady on 12,000.

Is this a glitch? Or is it part of a larger plan to censor and obfuscate all news related to violations of human rights perpetuated by the country’s feared ESMAD riot police? Lets look a little deeper.

SEX SELLS vs IF IT BLEEDS IT LEADS

Sex and Gore are the media industry’s two holy cash cows and “The nymphomaniac that proposes to have sex with 100,000 men” was El Espectadors best bet in making the masses forget the previous weeks protests and the Injured Youth. The piece became number 1 in the newspapers TOP 10 for the week of 2nd to 8th of September.

“Up this this moment Ania Lisewska has 284 men in her ´collection´”

Sex sells and the picture of the 21 year old Polish sex junky with her legs seductively bared on her bed no doubt helped the article skyrocket to number 1 for the week. Now lets look at the Injured Youth in the previous week:

Instead of showing the Injured Youths mutilated face haemorrhaging blood we get an image of a different youth, without a cut on him, seemingly antagonizing the ESMAD riot police that cower against the wall. El Espectador have an original photo of the youth but they decided to go against the cardinal rule in news media “if it bleeds it leads” which makes us wonder why don’t they want this story to lead?

Media Manipulation is everywhere and if citizen journalists do not hold news organizations accountable their flagrant abuse of the truth it will only become more outrageous.

To prove this point the day after the National Agrarian Strike ended, with hundreds of outstanding human rights violations by the ESMAD and half the countryside on the brink of bankruptcy, the front page of El Espectador has 12 articles about sport and one article hidden at the bottom from the “chief of state” Juan Manuel Santos acknowledging there’s a problem.

Casualty of a Media War: Photographer Federico Lennis

With 10,000 shares more than the consecutive weeks article (or 24,443 shares less depending on which view-count you believe) it is hard to fathom why the journalists at El Espectador haven’t looked further into the case of the Injured Youth.

The following message is part of news that has been spreading since the 30th of August, about the young Federico Lennis, who on the 29th of August was injured in the face by the ESMAD (original Post)

While the mainstream media was silent citizen journalists and Facebook groups were busy scouring the web for more information about the boy and posting pleas via leveraging the power of social networks.

In the image to the left the cousin of the injured youth, named Federico Lennis, states: [quote]Hello everybody, i am the cousin of Federico and I am infinitely grateful to you all for the great support you have given us over this Facebook page. I inform you that fortunately he is good in health and talking in general….

We are working on gathering information as a family, friends, and relatives, contacts of any kind to help improve his quality of life, its to say…. we want a smile on him like before…for that we need a dentist or various im not sure, those who are interested in the case he has already lost various teeth and we need someone urgently…[/quote]

On the citizen journalist site aptly named Mentiras Medios or “Lying Media” we get an even better idea who Federico Lennis is in their two articles that reconstruct the steps leading up to his injury.

They also found a quote on a Youtube video on Noticias Capital that devotes most of the time investigating the Cartel of Vandals but interviews a man at the end who tells us what happened to Federico Lennis: [quote]Yesterday we were first hand witnesses, of the police brutality that the ESMAD introduced and the force available from the National Police in Bogota, on the road 19 with avenue 7a a youth of approximately 18 years was hit by a tear gas grenade. This completely destroyed his lips, the police did nothing to help him.[/quote]

We also see that certain elements are attempting to defame Federico Lennis by claiming he was a “masked vandal” or Capucho. Fortunately we can thank the coming of age of Colombia’s citizen journalists for not settling for censorship and revealing the truth about this 18 year old photographer who may never smile again. But hell always be remembered as the martyr who fought for a cause he believed in.

"Here we have the youth that the ESMAD destroyed the Face...Federico Lennis. Here is the proof that he was not a "masked vandal" he was a photographer. That those responsible appear, the true vandals, the ESMAD that shot him."
“Here we have the youth that the ESMAD destroyed the Face…Federico Lennis.
Here is the proof that he was not a “masked vandal” he was a photographer.
That those responsible appear, the true vandals, the ESMAD that shot him.
SHARE THIS SO THAT THERE IS JUSTICE”

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Sin censura: Vilma Vargas sin rodeos en torno a la libertad de expresión en Ecuador

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vilma-vargas2“¿Qué pasa con una democracia cuando los periodistas y artistas tienen miedo de expresar libremente sus críticas a quienes están en el poder?”, es una de las preguntas que hacemos a Vilma Vargas, un talento en ascenso en el mundo del arte ecuatoriano. Fue seleccionada dos veces para el “World Press Cartoon” en Portugal y ganadora en RESET 11.11.11 en México como mejor caricaturista.

Bajo el mandato de Rafael Correa, actual presidente de Ecuador, el incumplimiento de la nueva Ley de Comunicación ha provocado sanciones, e incluso cierres, de algunos medios de comunicación. Además, ha habido demandas millonarias y amenazas contra periodistas, quienes en algunos casos se han visto obligados a abandonar el país. Esta situación ha contribuido a lo que Vilma Vargas señala como el “momento más grave en lo que a libertad de prensa se refiere”.

Sin embargo, esto no ha intimidado a Vargas, que ha continuado con su estilo franco; y mientras muchos caricaturistas ecuatorianos se han vuelto cautos a la hora de publicar sus trabajos, las de Vilma se destacan por su irreverencia.

Una Mujer en una profesión dominada por hombres

Chekhov: Cuando el diario El Comercio pidió a seis artistas dibujar un cómic con el tema “Si los superhéroes vivieran en Ecuador”… usted era la única mujer seleccionada. ¿Significa esto que hay cinco artistas masculinos para cada artista femenina en Ecuador, o cree que los artistas de su género a menudo se pasan por alto?

Vilma Vargas: El Ecuador se caracteriza por tener varios artistas de renombre, así como muchos caricaturistas. Lastimosamente, en el humor gráfico hay algunas mujeres que aún están en la sombra y somos muy pocas quienes nos hemos ganado un lugar en la prensa. Pero en el humor gráfico es como en otras áreas: las mujeres aún están relegadas a un segundo plano.

Además, la historia siempre está escrita por hombres. En la historia del Arte han existido varias mujeres artistas, escultoras y pensadoras; sin embargo, pese a su importancia, se las ha pasado por alto.

Diario El Comercio
Diario El Comercio

Chekhov:¿Qué consejos puede darles a las jóvenes artistas femeninas que buscan su voz artística y que luchan para que el mundo presta atención a su arte?

Vilma Vargas: Creo que en mi país las mujeres y la gente en general está más preocupada en solventar sus necesidades básicas que en realizar algún tipo de arte. Sin embargo, la gente que opta por alguna actividad artística debe saber que el arte es un modo de vida. Y arriesgarse y expresarse es la mejor forma de libertad.

Chekhov: Entonces, para que este se convierta en un modo de vida, hay que enfocarse ciento por ciento al arte. ¿Esta es una de las razones por las que usted dejó su carrera de arquitectura?

Vilma Vargas: Creo que fue una necesidad; las pasiones a veces se imponen y son necesarias ciertas renuncias para enfocarte en el trabajo creativo. Sin embargo, no he dejado del todo la arquitectura, sólo que es el arte quien no me deja que lo abandone…

Acoso Gubernamental Contra la Libertad de Expresión

Chekhov: ¿Con los caricaturas que publica en el periódico Hoy recibe suficiente para mantenerse, o tiene que buscar otras fuentes de ingresos?

Vilma Vargas: Como sabes, la prensa atraviesa uno de los más graves momentos por el acoso gubernamental en cuanto a la libertad de expresión y eso ha afectado a varios medios, incluído el Diario en el que colaboro. Por lo que yo vivo de mis dibujos, ilustraciones, murales en cerámica y también un poco del aire.

"Press Freedom"
“Press Freedom”

Chekhov: La libertad de expresión es uno de los temas más abordados en sus caricaturas. ¿Puede contarnos cuál es la importancia de la libertad de expresión y el significado existente detrás de dibujos como el de la libertad de prensa atacada por murciélagos?

Vilma Vargas: Ese es un dibujo que está basado en un grabado de Goya, que se llama “El sueño de la razón produce monstruos”. Lo que hice fue representar a la prensa acosada por varias sombras.

Lo malo es que la realidad no es como la caricatura; si aquí opinas diferente no te verás perturbado por inocentes murciélagos sino por todo el peso de una ley que responde casi siempre a los intereses del Gobierno.

Chekhov: ¿Qué le ocurre a una democracia cuando los periodistas tienen miedo de investigar y criticar a quienes ostentan el poder?

Vilma Vargas: En primer lugar ya no sería democracia, caso contrario no tendrías miedo de opinar, de criticar o de autocriticarte, inclusive. El riesgo latente con éstas medidas de presión y leyes de comunicación que atentan a nuestras libertades es que los periodistas y medios periodísticos ejercerán una autocensura, que a los únicos que perjudican es a la gente porque no te llega la información o la investigación adecuada de varios temas.

La “Legalización” del acoso contra el periodismo

La nueva Ley de Comunicación
La nueva Ley de Comunicación

Chekhov: ¿Cómo es la nueva Ley de Comunicación de Ecuador y quiénes son las personas de traje y corbata que, en su caricatura, salen del Caballo de Troya?

Vilma Vargas: Antes de la “Ley de Comunicación” ya existía cierta presión y acoso a varios medios. Ahora lo único que se hizo fue la “legalización” de esas prácticas. En el dibujo represento una ley disfrazada de regalo y de legalidad, pero que en su interior pululan varios seres que, en su pensamiento, ya tienen incorporadas las prohibiciones.

Chekhov: ¿Puede contarnos acerca de la correlación entre lo que está sucediendo a nivel nacional con respecto a los periodistas que tienen miedo de criticar al presidente Correa y cómo este ha colocado políticos en el nivel municipal para amenazar, hostigar y dejar sin trabajo a periodistas que investigaban casos de corrupción municipal, como el caso de Ignacio Ramos Mancheno?

Vilma Vargas: El problema que tiene el Gobierno es creer que lo que ellos dicen es la verdad y armar todo un aparato ideológico en las cadenas sabatinas para convencernos de “su verdad”. Así, es normal que existan muchos roces con voces no oficialistas.

El Alcalde Juan Salazar preso, acusado por corrupción.
El Alcalde Juan Salazar preso, acusado por corrupción.

Yo no conozco muy a fondo el caso de Ignacio, pero es visible que a él como a muchas personas se le han cerrado las puertas laborales por no comulgar con el poder. Incluso el humor está monitoreado, pues podemos ver casos de caricaturistas que han sido mencionados en las sabatinas.

Chekhov: En referencia a mi caricatura favorita, “la vaca cebra”, ¿puede contarnos cómo las redes sociales fueron claves en el momento de divulgar mensajes como el de esta caricatura, y de los periodistas y ciudadanos que lucharon para encarcelar, por corrupción, al ex-alcalde Juan Salazar?

Vilma Vargas: Hace mucho tiempo que yo no tocaba los temas de mi ciudad debido a malas experiencias con los directivos de cierto diario local que censuraban mis dibujos. Sin embargo, dada la importancia del tema, nuevamente estoy opinando sobre la ciudad en las redes sociales; de allí viene el dibujo del alcalde, que tengo entendido no le hizo ninguna gracia a sus partidarios. Es así, que las redes sociales son muy importantes para difundir las voces divergentes.

Logo de la campaña Ecuador ama la vida

Drilling for oil in the most biodiverse place on the planet
Logo de la campaña Ecuador ama la vida

Chekhov: Muchas de tus caricaturas recientes se centran en el tema del Parque Nacional Yasuní y de la decisión del Presidente Correa de explotar el petróleo. ¿Puede hablarnos de sus sentimientos sobre el Yasuní. ¿Ha tenido la oportunidad de visitar este lugar?

Vilma Vargas: Tuve la oportunidad de pintar un mural en el Coca y ver la sobrecogedora naturaleza que tenemos. La ciudad de El Coca es una población que se formó alrededor de la extracción petrolera.

En cuanto a la explotación del Yasuní, ésta no debe ser una decisión únicamente del Gobierno, sino de toda la población del país, porque es algo que nos concierne a todos. Con esta noticia, el mundo puede darse cuenta que tenemos un gobierno para el que no es prioridad conservar las maravillas naturales del Ecuador.

Los riesgos de ser libre y de opinar diferente

Vilma Vargas art
“Ejecutivo – Legislativo – Judicial”

Chekhov: Después de que el periodista Emilio Palacio escribió que la presidencia de Correa era una dictadura, tuvo que buscar asilo político en Estados Unidos para escapar de tres años de cárcel y de una indemnización de 4 millones de dólares… Si usted continúa dibujando caricaturas de Presidente Correa, como la que aparece con tres cabezas que representan los tres poderes del Estado, ¿ha pensado en la posibilidad de que algún día usted también tendrá que salir el país si quiere seguir expresándose libremente?

Vilma Vargas: Denunciar y hacer arte o decir lo que uno piensa siempre trae sus riesgos. Ser libre y opinar diferente también. Mientras mi lucidez me lo permita seguiré dibujando porque, aunque puede sonar contradictorio, mientras más mal le va al país, más trabajo tenemos los caricaturistas.

Más sobre Vilma en su página web: http://www.vilma-vargas.com/

Vilma Vargas Uncensored: the Caricaturist drawing circles around Ecuador´s attacks on freedom of expression

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What happens to a democracy when its journalists and artists are too afraid to criticise those in power and express themselves freely?

This is one of the questions we ask Vilma Vargas – a rising talent in the Ecuadorian art scene who was twice selected for the “World Press Cartoon” in Portugal and awarded first prize at RESET 11.11.11 in Mexico for best caricaturist.

Under the current Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa the coerced closures of numerous media stations that do not comply with the new Law of Communication as well as lawsuits seeking millions in damages against journalists, some who have been forced out of work and threatened with imprisonment, physically assaulted and had their family homes raided at gunpoint by government officials have all contributed to what Vargas calls “one of the gravest moments” the free press in her country has ever faced.

This however hasn´t intimidated Vargas into censoring her outspoken style and while other Ecuadorian journalists have become fearful of rocking the boat her caricatures stand out like a Cotopaxi-sized-pimple on President Correa´s chin.

A Woman in a Profession Dominated by Men

Chekhov: When the newspaper El Comercio asked six artists to draw a comic with the theme “If Superheroes lived in Ecuador” you where the only woman selected. Does that mean there are 5 male artists for every female or do you think artists of your gender are often overlooked?

Vilma Vargas: Ecuador is characterized as having several renowned artists, as well as many caricaturists. Unfortunately in the realm of graphic humour there are some women who remain in the shadows and very few who have won a place in the press. But in graphic humour like it is in other areas: women are still relegated to second place.

Also history has always been written by men. In the history of art, there exists several women artists, sculptors, philosophers, between other important women that have also been looked over.

vilma-vargas-superhero
Chekhov: What advice can you give to younge female artists searching for their artistic voice and fighting to be noticed in the world?

Vilma Vargas: I believe that in my country, women and people in general are more worried about how to solve their basic needs than perform some type of art. However people who do choose to have an artistic vocation should know that art is a way of life where you need to embrace risk and to express yourself is the best form of freedom.

Chekhov: Then for art to become a lifestyle you need to focus on it 100% which is one of the reasons you left your career in architecture?

Vilma Vargas: I believe it was more of a necessity. Passions sometimes impose and its necessary to renounce certain areas of your life to focus on creative work. But I haven’t abandoned architecture completely, its just that “art” wont let me abandon it at all.

On Government Attacks Against Freedom of Expression

Chekhov: Do you receive enough from your caricatures published in the newspaper Hoy to support this lifestyle or do you need to find other sources of income?

Vilma Vargas: Like you know, the press is passing through one of its gravest ever moments because of government harassment regarding freedom of expression and that has affected various media outlets, including the newspaper where I work. I live off my drawings, illustrations, and ceramic murals.

"Press Freedom"
“Press Freedom”

Chekhov: One of the major themes to your work is Freedom of Expression, can you tell us the meaning behind drawings of yours like the one of Press Freedom being attacked by bats?

Vilma Vargas: That drawing is based on an engraving by Goya called: “The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters”. – What I wanted it to represent is the press being attacked by various shadows.

The worst part is reality is not like the caricature, if you have a different opinion you will not be disturbed by innocent bats but with the entire weight of the law which almost always responds with the interests of the Government.

Chekhov: What happens to a democracy when journalists fear investigating and criticizing those who are in power?

Vilma Vargas: First there wouldn’t be a democracy, because if not, you wouldn’t be afraid to have an opinion, to criticize others or yourself. The latent risk with these measures and pressures and media laws that infringe on our freedoms is that journalists and news media will start self-censoring, which impairs peoples ability to get information or adequate research on various topics.

The “Legalization” of Attacks Against Journalism

Ecuador´s new "Law of Communication"
Ecuador´s new “Law of Communication”

Chekhov: What is the new Law of Communication in Ecuador like and in your caricature who are the people in suits and ties coming out of the Trojan horse?

Vilma Vargas: Even before the implementation of the “Law of Communications” there was some pressure and harassment through various means. Now the only thing its done is “legalize” these practices. In the drawing I represent a law disguised as a gift which is lawful but inside swarm several beings that already have incorporated prohibitions in mind.

Chekhov: Can you tell us about the correlation between what is happening on the national level with respect to the journalists who fear criticizing president Correa and how that has empowered politicians on the municipal level to threaten, harass, and force out of work journalists who are investing municipal corruption like Ignacio Ramos Mancheno?

Vilma Vargas: The problem is that the government only believes in what they say and they put together an entire strategy on the Saturday TV Broadcast Chains to convince us of “their truth”. Thus, it is normal that there are lots of clashes with voices outside of the ruling party.

The former mayor of Riobamba, Juan Salazar, in jail for corruption.
The former mayor of Riobamba, Juan Salazar, in jail under investigation for corruption.

I don’t know very well the story behind Ignacio’s case, but its clear that like many other people working in the press they have closed the doors on him for not agreeing with the powers that be. Graphic humour is monitored as well, we can already see cases where caricaturists have been mentioned in the Saturday TV Broadcast Chains.

Chekhov: Can you tell us about my favourite caricature, The Zebra Cow, and how social networks helped spread messages like this caricatures and other images from citizen journalists in their fight to unseat and imprison the former mayor Juan Salazar on corruption?

Vilma Vargas: Its been a long time since I touched the themes of my city owing to bad experiences I had with the directors of a certain newspaper that censured my drawings, however given the importance of the issue, I was again expressing my opinion about the city and from that came the drawing of the mayor from which I understand did not offer any grace to his followers.

Drilling for oil in the most biodiverse place on the planet
Drilling for oil in the most biodiverse place on the planet

Chekhov: Recently a lot of your caricatures are focused on President Correas decision to drill inside the Yasuni National Park for oil. Can you tell us your feelings about the Yasuni and if you had the opportunity to visit it when you were painting the mural for the bus terminal at Coca?

Vilma Vargas: In effect, I had the opportunity to paint the Mural of el Coca and see the breathtaking nature we have. The city of Coca is a population that has been generated because of the extraction of petroleum.

Concerning the refusal to conserve the Yasuni is not up to the government to decide, its a decision of the country, its something that concerns us all. With this news the world will realise that we have a government that doesn’t give priority to conserving the natural wonders of Ecuador.

Vilma Vargas art
“Executive – Legislative – Judicial”

Chekhov: After the journalist Emilio Palacio wrote that President Correa was a dictator he fled to the United States where he received political asylum to escape three years in jail and 4 million dollars in damages. If you continue to draw caricatures of President Correa like the one with three heads that represent the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches of government have you thought of the possibility that one day you to might have to leave the country if you wish to continue expressing yourself freely?

Vilma Vargas: To report and make art or say what one thinks always brings risks. To be free and feel differently too.

While my lucidity has permitted me to continue drawing it may sound counter-intuitive, but the worse the country gets, the more work there is for us caricaturists.

Chekhov: You can see more of Vilmas art on her website: http://www.vilma-vargas.com/
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