Don't even look for the news in the "independently objective" media, because freedom of speech, American citizenship, human rights and other slogans do not protect everyone, but no! Only those who line up. That is why we cannot read a single line about Gonzalo Lira's undignified and shameful death in the propaganda press of the dollar left.
Foreign policy analyst Gábor Stier summarizes the events related to the death of Gonzalo Lira below:
American journalist Gonzalo Lira died in a Ukrainian prison. His crime was that he did not agree with the policies of Ukraine and the United States. Washington didn't lift a finger to free him, even though he could have. The case also calls into question the sincerity of the White House's outrage and concern over Russia's anti-war laws and American journalists arrested in Russia.
"I didn't agree with him on almost anything, but he shouldn't have died in a Ukrainian prison!"
- wrote the news of Gonzalo Lira's death published on X by The Grayzone journalist Kit Klarenberg.
The news of the death of the 55-year-old blogger and journalist with dual Chilean-American citizenship shocked Tucker Carlson, who was also one of the first to deal with the case, who accused the White House of complicity, which he said led to Lira's imprisonment and torture. Gonzalo Lira's father also spoke to the well-known American television journalist, who was shaken by what happened.
"I cannot accept the way my son died. He was tortured, blackmailed, kept locked up for months, and the American embassy did nothing for him. The dictator Zelensky is responsible for the tragedy, with the agreement of a senile American president, Joe Biden."
commented senior Gonzalo Lira to The Grayzone.
The death of Gonzalo Lira was also confirmed by the US State Department, but citing the interests of the deceased's family, they refused to provide further information. Ilon Musk, who at the end of the year advocated the release of Gonzalo Lira, also spoke about the news.
"This is completely illegal"
Musk wrote, commenting on the publication of American businessman David Sacks in X.
Sachs drew attention to the fact that the Biden administration could have brought Gonzalo Líra back with a phone call, but he did not lift a finger. So the Ukrainian government knew it could act with impunity. Donald Trump's son also spoke about the news of his death, sarcastically remarking that he was in vain waiting for the American media to be outraged by what happened.
The Western mainstream media is not really outraged this time in the face of previous similar cases in Russia, but the Western politicians are not protesting either. Of course, in the midst of the information war, the news was immediately picked up by the Russian press and politics. Russian UN diplomat Dmitry Polyansky called the death of the American journalist a terrible crime.
Gonzalo Angel Quintilio Lira Lopez was born in the United States and holds Chilean citizenship. In his videos published on social media, he criticized NATO, the government of US President Joe Biden, and Volodymyr Zelensky, and called the war a war between America and Russia. Lira, 55, used to live in Kharkiv and blog under the name "CoachRedPill," but switched to YouTube videos after the escalation of the conflict with Russia in February 2022, and her channel has more than 140,000 followers.
"The Security Service of Ukraine (SzBU) arrested him in May 2023 and accused him of defaming the Ukrainian leadership and the army"
The blogger reappeared on X at the end of July with a series of posts in which he revealed the torture he suffered in prison and the fact that the SzBU tried to blackmail him with money. He also posted about trying to escape to Hungary and apply for asylum here. According to the SzBU, after that, Lira, who was under house arrest on bail, tried to cross the border with his motorcycle, so he was arrested again and taken to Harkiv prison. He then disappeared from social media, and recently the family learned about his serious health problems in a message. According to this, he had pneumonia back in October, and his lungs collapsed. According to the message, the prison authorities did not deal with this and only acknowledged the problem on December 22, and in theory he should have undergone surgery, but he died in the Harkiv hospital.
"During more than eight months of detention, the Ukrainian authorities not only denied the journalist medical help for a long time, but also tortured him, demanded $70,000 from him and denied him contact with his lawyers."
Therefore, his family turned to the US State Department for help, to no avail. At the end of the year, Ilon Musk demanded an explanation from the Ukrainian authorities for the detention of Gonzalo Lira, in response the SZBU stated that the blogger regularly justified Russian aggression, spread pro-Russian theses on social media, and thus violated Ukrainian laws. The organization of Russian journalists also stood up for Gonzalo Lira and called the world's journalists on what happened to Gonzalo Lira.
"Gonzalo Lira's death above all raises the question of how to approach freedom of speech and human rights in times of war"
As we can see, selectively. And not just during wartime. If it is about Russia, the arrest of those who condemn the war, those who criticize or denigrate the Russian army, then the Western mainstream media is up in arms, they talk at length about the nature of the Russian system and the prison conditions, but if Ukraine does the same, it is shrouded in deep silence. He states the fact, but does not get upset - respect for the exception - instead, he rather reflects on the fact that in times of war rights are narrowed, there is less space for freedom of speech.
"But the death of the American blogger raises the case for the application of double standards in another sense"
Let's not forget that this is an American citizen whose history the competent American authorities knew about, yet they did not move a finger. Moreover, because Gonzalo Lira criticized the government, he did not agree with this war. He went against the mainstream, so his death didn't matter. He did not deserve protection, and there is no outrage now. Contrasted with Wall Street Journal journalist Evan Gershkovich, who is in a Russian prison on charges of espionage, for whose release American diplomacy is moving every stone.
So are there first-class and second-class US citizens? Yes! As we can see, the American passport does not protect everyone. Only those who think "correctly".
But in connection with what happened, it can rightly be raised, how can its allies trust the United States, if America treats its own citizens so selectively? Like this! Everyone should be aware that those who do not line up cannot count on protection! In fact!
"As we can see in the present case, those who are out of line, those who go against the mainstream are dangerous elements who, one way or another, must be set aside from the path of progress"
Gonzalo Lira was sidelined in a way that essentially gave the Kiev regime the power to do with him as it saw fit. In Washington, they knew very well that the blogger could not expect much good in Ukraine. Of course, the blogger could also know this, since he knew the country well. However, this does not absolve Ukraine from the responsibility of letting a man die because of his views. It didn't bother him that he was a foreign citizen either. Those who did not threaten Ukraine's national security interests just saw the situation differently. And now let's not go into what kind of bastion Ukraine is for democracy, and how much more democratic the Ukrainian system is than the Russian one. Well, the death of Gonzalo Lira does not indicate that he is more democratic.
"But let's not forget that Kiev does all this with the knowledge and even support of the Western world"
Well, sometimes there is a little grumbling. Because anti-Russianness overrides and blinds everything. We live in such a world, where democratic values are talked about, while double standards and double morals prevail in a hypocritical manner.