Colombia’s far-right ruling party is falsely claiming that President Ivan Duque is a “global example” over his response to the coronavirus pandemic.
According to fact-checking website Colombia Check, the claim that Duque “ranked third in the world as the leader who has made the best decisions in dealing with the pandemic” is false as no such ranking exists.
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Lawmakers of Duque’s Democratic Center party have been spreading the article of Barranquilla newspaper “La Libertad,” which in part seemed to be a copy of disinformation from a nationalist Facebook page.
The page falsely claimed that the non-existent CNN program “Panorama Internacional” ranked Colombia’s government after that of South Korea and El Salvador.
Colombia Check verified the latest programs of “Panorama Mundial” and “Mirador Mundial” of CNN en Español, but found no reference to any ranking about coronavirus policies.
We also did searches on the Internet, relating the three countries that supposedly lead the ranking in the management of the coronavirus, and we did not find any article that points out what the Facebook publication says. We even searched for the phrase “first place South Korea, second El Salvador and third Colombia” and did not find any media outlets that have published any related news. We also did a search in English and found the same thing: nothing.
Colombia Check
Apparently, the claim Colombia’s unpopular government is doing a good job is a figment of the imagination of the unpopular president’s followers.
Duque and his cabinet have been under immense criticism over the handling of the pandemic, initially over the president’s inaction and more recently over the alleged embezzlement of aid funds and failures to provide medical personnel
with protective clothing.
The government and Duque’s far-right party have engaged in multiple efforts to spread disinformation in apparent attempts to lift the president’s abysmal approval rating and carry out coordinated attacks against critics.
