US-backed Venezuelan opposition figure Juan Guaido has claimed that 300,000 of his compatriots will die from starvation – if American “humanitarian” aid is not let into the South American country.

No doubt, this opposition figure is being coached by his minders in Washington to set up a Western media drama in order to put pressure on the government of President Nicolas Maduro.

The events unfolding have an unmistakeable propaganda stamp, yet the Western media and certain disgraceful European governments have sheepishly gone along with this ruse for US-led regime change in Venezuela.

The dutiful Western corporate news media which have so far pushed the Washington narrative on Venezuela are spinning the drama according to the script. The narrative being: the benevolent, caring US government is sending humanitarian aid to help the starving people of Venezuela, but the "Maduro regime" is wickedly blocking aid from reaching the needy. Oh how nefarious! Please, please Uncle Sam quickly intervene… send in the merciful US marines!

Juan Guaido, the 35-year-old US-educated opposition figure whom most Venezuelans had never heard of until recently, is breathlessly described in Western media reports as the "internationally recognized president".

READ MORE: Pro-Venezuela Rally in Rome: Activist Says Aid From the US is NOT Humanitarian

That's a lie for a start. Guaido is recognized by the US and some other states, but the vast majority of nations continue to recognize the government of President Maduro as the legitimate authority. Maduro was inaugurated on January 10 for the second time as elected president. That's when Washington began to crank up its regime-change campaign in this country, which happens to possess the world's biggest-known oil reserves.

In an audacious subterfuge, Guaido proclaimed himself "acting president" of Venezuela on January 23. It was a move fully orchestrated by the Trump White House as a step towards regime change.

Guaido is now contriving a set-piece drama over humanitarian aid which is misleadingly being reported as blocked by the Maduro government on a single and actually defunct border crossing with Colombia. The bridge was built in 2015 but never opened due to an ongoing dispute between the two countries.

Juan Guaido, who has documented links with the American CIA, is being used like a puppet by the regime-change schemers in the Trump administration. They include war hawks John Bolton and Mike Pompeo, as well as convicted felon Elliot Abrams who during the 1980s ran weapons to anti-government death squads in Central America under the cover of "humanitarian aid".

The contrived deadline set for February 23 — to mark a month since the White House anointed Guaido as "leader" — is aimed at fomenting social discord within Venezuela and a moral imperative for Washington to act on its threats of military intervention.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov this week warned Washington against using military force in Venezuela. Russia, like the majority of UN members, has continued to respect Venezuela's sovereignty and its elected authorities. Moscow has denounced what it calls another illegal regime-change maneuver by Washington.

In the fog of propaganda churned out by Western news media it is sometimes difficult to discern what's really going on. The denigration of President Maduro and his socialist government in Caracas is almost relentless. The amplification of "pro-democracy opposition" seduces false perception. One would not know, for example, from Western media coverage that Maduro continues to be supported by the majority of Venezuelans. One would not know that most Venezuelans are against any form of US military aggression in their country. One would not know that the economic chaos in Venezuela has been largely caused by unremitting US-imposed sanctions on the nation's oil-dependent economy.

Never mind sending "humanitarian aid". The best way to alleviate the hardship in Venezuela is for the US to stop hammering the country with illegal economic warfare.

But here is one word by which to divine the truth of the situation: "Yemen".

READ MORE: Protests in France and Venezuela — Spot the Difference

This week, the United Nations again reiterated desperate appeals for humanitarian intervention in the Arab country. Some 14 million people are on the brink of starvation, according to the UN. That is about half the country's population.

That truly enormous human disaster compares with the alleged number of 300,000 Venezuelans said to be at risk of malnutrition. That figure is unverified and is bandied about by the US-backed opposition. But let's take it as authentic for sake of argument. That equates to less than one per cent of the Venezuelan population.

The infernal, pandemic suffering in Yemen is barely reported by Western news media, save for the occasional report which is usually shorn of any meaningful context. Yet the situation is incomparably more urgent than what is occurring in Venezuela.

There are no plane-loads of food and medicines arriving from the US landing in Yemen. There are few anguished calls in Western media about imminent deaths of children and mothers.

No, all the "concern" and drama is being focused on Venezuela where — although a country in turmoil — there are no skeletal children nor massive numbers of babies dying from cholera and other preventable diseases, as in Yemen.

Why aren't CNN, BBC, France 24, and so on, bringing daily reports from on the ground in Yemen and making those reports top of their news bulletins? Why isn't the US government mobilizing millions of dollars in aid and emergency food shipments to Yemen where the numbers of hungry civilians are incomparably greater.

The answer is plain to see. The US and its Western allies do not care about humanitarian suffering. Neither do Western news media who obviously are led by their noses. It is propaganda pretense.

READ MORE: Venezuelan Opposition 'Openly Calling for Libya-Style US Invasion' — Journalist

If Western media had any principles they would be exposing the vile links between their governments and arms companies and the Saudi war in Yemen causing the human catastrophe there. Instead, these media are too obsequiously playing up the false drama over Venezuela to facilitate their governments' criminal agenda of regime change.

Yemen is proof of the moral bankruptcy that resides in Washington, and much of the corporate news media.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.

The views and opinions expressed in the article do not necessarily reflect those of Sputnik.