Gonzalo Lira murdered
Another casualty of the intensifying global war on dissident reporters, and truth in general
RT having just reported that Gonzalo Lira—the Chilean-American journalist who had been highly critical of Ukraine’s government—has died in the Ukrainian prison where he was held (and, according to his family, tortured), I did a quick search to see what other outlets have reported Lira’s death.
Though some may report it later, or in the days to come, as of right now none has, as far as I can tell. What’s up there now is dated propaganda, jeering Lira for his stance against Zelensky’s government, just as “our free press” has jeered the dissidents on every front throughout the “COVID crisis” (of which the Ukraine/Russia melodrama was a part, until it was eclipsed by Gaza/Israel). Here’s a good example of such state-backed slander, from the aptly-named Daily Beast:
‘Red Pill’ Dating Coach Gonzalo Lira, Accused of Shilling for Putin, Is Arrested in Ukraine
May 5, 2023
Since “Putin” is invariably charged, by “our free press,” with routinely “killing journalists,” and Ukraine has been hailed reflexively, and on no rational grounds, as a “democracy,” Lira’s torture/murder is an inconvenient fact, and therefore likely either to be blacked out, downplayed and/or crudely misreported by our Ministry of Truth, which can’t afford to pay too much attention to this death, or (with some exceptions) to the journalists killed by the IDF in Gaza, or to the long, torturous and inexplicable detention of Julian Assange—just as “our free press” has long since tuned out the peculiar deaths of countless journalists, and other investigators, who Knew Too Much, from Dorothy Kilgallen to Danny Casolaro to Karen Silkwood (killed with government complicity, it now turns out) to Seth Rich and so many, many more.
What such silence tells us, in short, is that there’s really no “free press” in what we still call the “democracies” (which aren’t democracies), outside Substack and other (threatened) outlets on the margins; for, if the press were free, it would decry and then investigate the deaths of journalists who contradicted this or that Official Story, instead hushing up such deaths, however strange, and doubling down on just such stories, however ludicrous—exactly like the captive press under the Bolsheviks and Nazis, and inside Orwell’s Ministry of Truth.
But let’s not just bemoan this trend. Let’s do what we can to reverse it. so that “free speech” will be more than a dead letter, as it has certainly become these last four years.
US journalist jailed and 'tortured' by Ukraine has died – family
Gonzalo Lira’s relatives have blamed his death on Washington and Kiev
January 12, 2024
Gonzalo Lira. © YouTube / Gonzalo Lira
Chilean-American blogger Gonzalo Lira has died in a Ukrainian prison, his family said on Friday.
“I cannot accept the way my son has died. He was tortured, extorted, incommunicado for 8 months and 11 days and the US Embassy did nothing to help my son. The responsibility of this tragedy is the dictator Zelensky with the concurrence of a senile American President, Joe Biden,” his father Gonzalo Lira Sr. wrote in a note published by The Grayzone.
Lira Senior also reached out to X host Tucker Carlson, confirming the death of his son in Ukrainian custody. He had spoken to Carlson about the case in early December.
His son Lira, 55, used to live in Kharkov and blog as ‘CoachRedPill,’ but switched to YouTube commentary after the conflict with Russia escalated in February 2022. He was arrested by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) last May and accused of “discrediting” the Ukrainian leadership and the military.
Lira resurfaced in late July with a series of posts on X (formerly Twitter), revealing his torture in jail and attempts of the SBU to extort him for money. He said he was trying to flee to Hungary and seek asylum. Then he disappeared again.
Two days later, a source confirmed to RT that Lira had been caught and imprisoned by Ukrainian authorities. He has not been heard from since.
According to a handwritten note Lira’s sister received on January 4, he had severe health problems caused by pneumonia and a collapsed lung, which began in mid-October. The prison authorities only acknowledged the issue on December 22, and he was supposed to undergo surgery. The note was provided to The Grayzone by Lira Senior….
https://twitter.com/RealAlexRubi/status/1745863733438488629
It saddens me beyond words to hear this.
In a World of PROPAGANDA, the TRUTH is Always a CONSPIRACY.
Gonzalo Lira shared the truth. May he rest in peace.