Following the CNN report “Passports in the Shadows” aired on February 6th, the Venezuelan government ordered the immediate suspension of the American satellite television channel. The report covered the purported passport fraud that took place at the Venezuelan embassy in Iraq.
As an alternative, CNN took its programming to YouTube on February 15th and encouraged TV viewers to read news reports linked on its Spanish website. Evidently, the National Telecommunications Commission of the Venezuelan government did not know that it could not block the live streaming signal.
The report that connected Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami to the provision of 173 passports to an alleged terrorist group, as deemed by both the US and Western powers, was reiterated on CNN’s Spanish site and went live on the Spanish-language YouTube channel.