The network that promotes Andrónico Rodríguez on Facebook includes an official and disinformation attacks

Andrónico Rodríguez Ledezma is president of the Chamber of Senators and vice president of the six Federations of Coca Leaf Producers of the Cochabamba Tropics, the organizational muscle of the wing of the Movement towards Socialism (MAS) loyal to Evo Morales.

Patricio Huaynoca Fuentes is an official of the Senate and communicator for Senator Andrónico Rodríguez. It is linked to a page that pretends to be a media outlet called “The digital era”, from where presidential candidates were attacked in 2019, content against President Luis Arce is published and Rodríguez’s content is amplified.

This page previously used the name Vanguardia contra la disinformation.

Huaynoca also used his personal but public page, called “Patricio Huaynoca”, to share disinformation in 2020, when this same page was called Vanguardia for the binomial Evo – Álvaro 2025.

Most of these attacks were directed against the then interim president Jeanine Añez.

Rodríguez’s publications are shared up to 149 times by 5 fake profiles that distribute the senator’s content in 6 different groups. Interspersing the use of profiles, but being To Paz Richar the most frequent and the one with the largest number of followers.

An analysis of the accounts that these users follow shows a pattern, and that is that almost all of them follow an account by or about Andrónico Rodríguez.
The accounts also follow pages related to the pro-MAS youth group, Blue Vanguard and its alternative page Blue Vanguard Press.

The Prensa Vanguardia Azul page was created on December 3, 2019 with the name “Andrónico La Voz del Pueblo”, the same name of a public group with more than 9 thousand members that is managed by the page called La Era Digital and six others. profiles, including Patricio Huaynoca Fuentes.

According to the System of Sworn Declaration of Assets and Income of the State Comptroller General’s Office, Patricio Huaynoca Fuentes is an official of the Chamber of Senators.

Applying specific search filters on Facebook, ChequeaBolivia found that in 2020 Huaynoca published exactly the same photographs and posts as La Era Digital from which it is now its personal pagewhich was then called “Vanguardia por el Binomio Evo-Álvaro 20-25”.

Between March 13 and 31 of that year, ChequeaBolivia found 13 publications from La Era Digital and Huaynoca’s personal page that are identical, as seen below:

The publications have the same text, the same punctuation marks and the same photographs, which were also published on the same date and time. Almost always using the hashtag #VanguardiaAzul.

There are also 30 posts using the same photographs and similar texts (paraphrased), and posted minutes apart.

In a review of the cover photographs of La Era Digital corresponding to February and October 2019, it is observed that there are Vanguardia Azul logos. Likewise, Huaynoca appears in photographs wearing clothing from said pro-MAS youth group (1) (2).

The Digital Era, in addition to promoting the image of Senator Andrónico Rodriguez, dedicated itself to attacking the current political rivals of Evo Morales and his allies.

Between August 9 and October 26, 2019, before and during the general elections of that year, La Era Digital made 25 publications seeking to delegitimize Carlos Mesa, leader of the Comunidad Ciudadana (CC) party and then Morales’ main competitor for the presidency.

After the elections and when the direct rival of the MAS became someone else, La Era Digital began a campaign of attacks against the transitional government chaired by Jeanine Añez. who assumed the presidency after the chain resignation of the MAS authorities due to the post-electoral conflicts of 2019.

Between November 13, 2019 and March 2, 2020, La Era Digital made 71 publications against Añez and different members of his Government.

Three of these attacks contained disinformation and 5 of them were unverifiable statements according to ChequeaBolivia’s methodology, that is, they cannot be verified by consulting official (government), alternative (documentary) or original sources (people related to the information).

At this stage, there were also 3 attacks against the national press, 2 against the Supreme Electoral Tribunal (TSE), the entity in charge of organizing the new 2020 elections, and 3 cases of electoral misinformation one week before the elections, in the that La Era Digital spread false surveys or surveys carried out by unauthorized institutions and a video about pens with alleged erasable ink that was originally published in Peru.

At the same time, in 2020 La Era Digital broadcast 23 messages in support of Luis Arce, when he was a presidential candidate for the MAS.
This changed after Arce’s victory and the subsequent break with Evo Morales in March 2023, so the page stopped attacking the traditional opposition to focus on delegitimizing the current president.

Between November 18, 2022 and June 6, 2024, La Era Digital published 11 attacks against the Arce Government and MAS assembly members who support it. Accusing them of delaying the judicial elections and calling Arce a traitor.

All this while The Digital Era continued to promote the image of Senator Andrónico Rodríguez, who remained loyal to Morales.

Between 2019, when Andrónico Rodríguez was still a candidate, and 2024, when he was elected by fourth time As president of the Senate, La Era Digital made 54 publications supporting him.

From “Vanguardia por el Binomio Evo – Álvaro 20-25”, which now serves as his personal page, Huaynoca published disinformation and attacks against the government of Jeanine Añez.

One of these publications in which the image of Ecuadorian doctors holding a sign was edited so that it said: “ON MAY 3, DO NOT VOTE FOR AGE”, was denied by Bolivia Verifies and Check Boliviabeing collected from the page Socialist Blood.

In the description of the Sangre Socialista post you can read: “You really have to be very cheeky and shameless to say that we have no resources and that the previous government left us in deficit and at the same time increase the salary of the rioters in the middle of the crisis.” (sic).

The Huaynoca publication has exactly the same text, including punctuation errors in “dejo” and “deficit.”

Another publication by Huaynoca in April 2020, in which it shows leaders in Riberalta, arbitrarily arrested by the Añez government, carries the description “Dictatorship at its finest.”

This post was verified by Fact Crescendoa Sri Lanka Verification initiative, which found that the photograph was originally taken in Colombia of coronavirus quarantine violators.
Facebook later classified Huaynoca’s post as false and censored.

Contacted by ChequeaBolivia, Huaynoca said that social networks should not be taken as reliable sources, and that only official pages should be considered that way.

“We can have thousands of pages, and you can publish whatever you like, whatever you like. “One makes known through those pages what one feels,” he declared.
Huaynoca also stated that he was a political activist since college, and that many of the publications were made when he was not a public official.
“In 2020 I think I just (began to be a civil servant)” he stated in the first instance, but then wrote again to ChequeaBolivia to correct himself. “Since 2021, I have been a civil servant,” he corrected.

Although Huaynoca accepted to belong to Vanguardia Azul, a group related to La Era Digital, he stated that he is not currently an active member.

On the other hand, ChequeaBolivia tried to contact Senator Andrónico Rodríguez through messages and calls. And finally through your institutional email. However, at the time of going to press, no response was received.

Access Now’s public policy and freedom of expression expert, Agneris Sampieri, points out that in this type of situation, it is observed that Public officials form a political career based on misinformation.

“Responsibility in a legal sense, yes, mainly begins from having a public position, but in a moral sense or in a sense of criticism that can be pointed out. That he is a person who throughout his life or who has even formed a political career by misinforming public opinion,” the expert concluded.