Ken Roth of Human Rights Watch, HRW, recently tweeted that “Maduro has done a wonderful job uniting Venezuelans – around his prompt departure. But corrupt army officers hold out.”

The implication was that Venezuelans want a coup against the democratically elected government of Nicolas Maduro. Ken Roth certainly seems ready to applaud a coup. The corporate media throughout the Americas and Europe (as Human Rights Watch itself happily pointed out) is unanimous in depicting Maduro’s government as a dictatorship. The unanimity reveals something deeply wrong with corporate media. It should be a source of embarrassment, but that’s unthinkable to people like Ken Roth, whose outfit has a revolving door with high level U.S. officials. However, Torino Capital, in an update for investors this week, discussed a poll done by an opposition-aligned pollster, Datanalisis, which reveals that Venezuelan public opinion is not what you’d expect if you rely on the disinformation loop in which corporate media and Washington-friendly NGOs like HRW participate.

Datanalisis is run by Luis Vicente Leon.  He writes op-eds regularly for El Universal, one of Venezuela’s largest newspapers, as do many others who are even more vehemently anti-government. Leon has also appeared frequently on Venezuela’s biggest private TV networks. In a previous piece, I gave examples of the strident anti-government remarks Leon has made in the Venezuelan media.  His company, given its opposition to the government, has long been a favourite of the international press, and often treated as if it were the only pollster in the country.

With the anti-government orientation of Datanalisis in mind, consider the following results from the survey conducted between May 20 and June 4.