Pentagon’s fake Latin American papers recall British Cold War propaganda

The Pentagon is publishing fake AI ‘news’ across Latin America which mix financial advice with imperial propaganda. One article even celebrates the “precision” of the 3 January US raid on Venezuela. The operation recalls British fake media operations from the Cold War recently released from secret archives.

The project reflects the subtler side of American attempts to restore dominance in a continent the US ruling class views as its personal fiefdom.

Pentagon pushing fake news

The Intercept revealed on 2 June that a magazine named La Tilde was funded by the US government and operated:

as a military messaging platform for U.S. Special Operations Command South, or SOCSOUTH, which executes special forces missions throughout South and Central America as well as the Caribbean.

The outlet even got a sort of admission from La Tilde’s spokesperson:

When asked about SOCSOUTH’s role behind La Tilde, spokesperson Trevor Wild replied with the text of the site’s About page noting that it’s a government operation, but declined to comment further.

The magazine’s mix of normal stories with supportive articles about US imperialism recalls a similar British operation from the Cold War years. That operation was run by the UK’s Special Editorial Unit (SEU), part of the Foreign Office’s Information Research Department (IRD).

It served as a:

clandestine anti-communist propaganda unit which operated in the Foreign Office between 1948 and 1977.

According to a Declassified UK investigation from 14 May 2026, SEU produced deniable (or ‘black’) propaganda. Targets included nationalist and anti-colonial movements around the world:

Anti-colonial leaders such as Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser, Indonesia’s Sukarno, and Ghana’s Kwame Nkrumah were a frequent focus of British propaganda operations.

Declassified writer John McEvoy added:

Elsewhere, the SEU orchestrated propaganda campaigns on such diverse topics as fishing rights in the North Atlantic, apartheid in South Africa, and European communist parties.

Fake media organisations of yesteryear

But here is a key parallel:

Running news agencies was one of SEU’s “core activities”. These are described as “controlled outlets” in the archival material.

The fake outlets then and now mixed everyday news items with overtly political material to appear less suspicious:

In order to look like bona fide news agencies, the SEU’s “controlled outlets” fused political with “anodyne” content in order to “sweeten the pill” of the propaganda material.

These “anodyne” articles covered such issues as women’s affairs, health, sociology, geography, history, and sport.

This US’ updating of an old method combines filler AI-content about investment and travel advice mixed with openly pro-US propaganda material with headlines like:

Operation Absolute Resolve: The mission that captured Nicolás Maduro and set a new standard for precision and coordination

And:

“A rare happiness, but a real one”: Venezuelans speak about the hope that resurfaces after Nicolás Maduro’s capture.

Different fading empire, virtually identical shenanigans.

AI content, no bylines, US denials

The Intercept reported that La Tilde:

carries no bylines, masthead, or mention of actual staff of any kind. Although the site claims it employs “dozens of freelance reporters and content creators,” at least some of the site appears to have been generated by a large language model.

Adding:

Running articles through Pangram, an AI-text detection service, produced multiple hits for both English and Spanish writing either partially or entirely written by machines (though such tools are known to deliver false positives).

Former Pentagon cyber-policy adviser Emerson Brooking noted the La Tilde website’s “shoddiness” and said it was:

AI all the way down.

Brooking said:

If you can generate new content and even news fronts at the flip of a switch, your influence operations can shift target and focus much more quickly.

That seems to be the thinking behind recent AI-powered Russian and Chinese networks, for instance.

The US military denied any connection to La Tilde:

SOUTHCOM [US miltary Southern Command] “does not fund, operate, or have any official association with La Tilde,” according to spokesperson Steven McLoud, who did not respond to further questions.

And La Tilde looks to be expanding operations. The Intercept found:

An analysis of subdomains hosted on LaTilde.co reveals the site plans to launch bespoke versions for readers in Ecuador, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras, Jamaica, Panama, and Peru.

Propaganda wing of Trump’s American Empire

Dominance in the Americas has always been US policy. President Trump has sharpened it in the 2025 National Security Strategy. The Canary has followed this process since Trump’s 2024 re-election:

The Monroe Doctrine, many Canary readers will be aware, basically means US political and economic dominance of the continent. The ‘Donroe’ doctrine, as the new version has been called, is Trump’s typically egotistical update.

As we noted:

The US started 2026 with an attack on Venezuela and various threats against neighbours like Greenland, Canada and others. Since then, it was steered — with the help of Israel — into a war with Iran. And spent the last few months getting an arse-kicking in a dramatically failing conflict there.

However:

the Americas have not been forgotten in Trump’s vision. The US military and US intelligence have been busy while Iran took the headlines.

You can read our 30 May analysis – ‘Trump’s American empire: US operations are firing up across the continent‘ –  here. You can read the full National Security Strategy here. The new US counter-terrorism strategy also mentions uses the coded language of cartel ‘narco-terrorism’ to build consent for US hemispheric power.

Influence operations like La Tilde are the flip side of kinetic US military actions, partner training and support for Trump-aligned right-wing politicians on the continent. The Iran war will end at some point. The US ruling class will return more fully to a core competency: bullying their neighbours into submission.

Featured image via Getty/Win McNamee

By Joe Glenton

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