Published at: 17/09/2025 09:00 PM

By: Ernesto Rodríguez “Political Documents” No. 53 Bogotá — Colombia

(WHAT, happens in Venezuela, June 24 and December 2, 1966)

• Since 1942, North American specialists have been teaching their Latin disciples to “learn to kill so as not to die”. And modern methods.

• All military manuals in Latin America repeat this motto with which Pentagon marines formulate their plans for counterrevolutionary war.

• The motto became a method ever since, in the jungles of the Philippines, the generals of the United States had to face the Asian guerrillas that fought for national independence.

• LEARN TO KILL SO AS NOT TO DIE: The motto has a psychological projection that the Pentagon has been studying carefully, especially since the Second World War.

• Contemporary military operations begin long before gunshots ring out and troops move in.

• Psychological readiness is one of the most important characteristics of modern warfare.

• The United States has created an entire system of propaganda and military education that accompanies each of its operations anywhere in the world.

• THE PENTAGON PROGRAM: The system of psychological warfare is intended to ensure that the military has control not only military, but also political and psychological, in the regions where it operates.

• The Pentagon views modern war as an all-out struggle. It's not enough to win battles, it's about destroying the enemy politically, economically and culturally.

• The Pentagon organizes propaganda campaigns, creates intelligence networks, influences public opinion and acts before a single shot is fired.

• COVERT PROPAGANDA: An essential part of the system is covert propaganda. Rumors are infiltrated, false news is spread, journalists are bought and all media are used to influence opinion.

• Pentagon psychological operations use radio, newspapers, movies, television and books to discredit revolutionaries and gain the support of the population.

• WHAT IS DEPARTMENT 57? : The activities of the famous Department 57, which directs the psychological operations of the Colombian army, are totally inspired by the doctrines of the Pentagon. Counterguerrilla manuals teach that propaganda is as important as weapons. Military forces must win “the hearts and minds” of the population.

• THE ESSENCE OF “PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE”: British Colonel John Boyd-Carpenter, an instructor at Fort Bragg, affirms that psychological operations are the key to victory in any counterrevolutionary war.

• In Colombia, experiments have been carried out in Marquetalia, Rio Chiquito and other areas, where military operations were accompanied by propaganda campaigns.

• POLICIES OF PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE: The North American manual points out several basic points:

  1. Identify the enemy and divide it into groups.

  2. Win over the neutral and indecisive.

  3. Discredit guerrilla leaders.

  4. Organize civic operations to appear social interest.

• MILITARY INTELLIGENCE SERVICE: The manual indicates that the Ministry of Defense must have a highly organized intelligence system. Psychological operations cannot work without accurate information about the combatants and about the civilian population.

• TRUTHS VERSUS LIES: The Pentagon teaches how to use both truths and lies. What is important is the psychological effect. Sometimes the truth is used to gain trust; other times, the lie is used to create distrust

• ESPIONAGE: “Clandestine means of collection are an accessory source of information,” says a Pentagon document. “Intelligence must rely on the population,” he continues.

• In Colombia, U.S. officials have taught how to form networks of informants and how to infiltrate popular organizations. Agents infiltrate unions, parties, student, peasant and religious groups to obtain information about their leaders and plans.

• OPERATION MARQUETALIA: It was in Operation Marquetalia that the Colombian armed forces, advised by North American experts, experienced psychological warfare for the first time in Latin America as part of the counterinsurgency strategy.

• Army radio stations spread false news, patrols distributed food, while mountains were being bombed.

• Psychological warfare is part of a total strategy of political, military and economic domination. It is the method that the United States has imposed in Latin America to curb popular struggles and revolutionary guerrillas.

• In Venezuela, psychological warfare was carried out through a massive propaganda offensive steeped in disinformation and intimidating messages to frighten the population, for which the United States Information Service (USIS) intervened:

  • $463,000 per month in campaigns aimed at controlling thinking and generating new behavior patterns in the population.
  • Bs. 2,000,000 intended to broadcast programs and news programs on 80 of the 90 radio stations, with a total of 200 hours of daily broadcasting.
  • Fifty monthly documentaries were broadcast on television, with content prepared in USIS laboratories.
  • He settled in Maracaibo edo. Zulia la Casa de América, with a payroll of 42 employees, eleven of them Americans, and branches in Caracas and Barquisimeto.
  • From 1953 to 1973, the Creole Observer, from Radio Caracas Television, was the most elaborate, expensive and sophisticated tool of psychological warfare installed in Venezuela, with Rafael Poleo, an agent of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), among its paid journalists.
  • The Creole Observer was financed for more than two decades by the Creole Petroleum Corporation, a subsidiary of Standard Oil, owned by Nelson Rockefeller, owner of this transnational oil company and half of Venezuela a.
  • The objective of this brainwashing was to create “Creole Men” and “Shell Men”, devoid of any national identity, replacing their values, history and principles with the tastes, pleasures and hedonistic life of the “American Way of Life”.

Mazo News Team