Who is Patrick Hernandes, Whose Detention is Being Used to Spread a Conspiracy Theory About the USA?

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Patrick Hernandes
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On May 13 and 14, Facebook accounts and pages (1;2;3;4;5;6;7;8;9;10;11;12;13;14;15), as well as the POSTV media outlet, which has a pro-government editorial policy, posted photos featuring, among other faces, Patrick Hernandes, whom the authors of the posts refer to as “Ackerman’s instructor,” sent from the US to organize a revolution in Georgia. The photos were posted by POSTV journalist Natia Beridze on her Telegram channel.

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It is worth noting that the pro-government page, POLITICS, has been sponsoring the photo since May 13.

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Pro-government Facebook pages and accounts are trying to link the detention of the US citizen during the rally to a conspiracy theory that the USA is encouraging unrest in Georgia. In reality, the detainee, Patrick Hernandes, has been living and working in Georgia for years now as an English teacher.

Pro-government Facebook pages and accounts are trying to link the detention of the US citizen during the rally to the conspiracy theory that the USA wants to provoke unrest in Georgia and drag the country into war. To this end, Patrick Hernandes, detained during the rally, is called a “soldier” and “instructor” of Peter Ackerman, a member of the IREX’s Global Advisory Council and the founder of the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict, who passed away in 2022, and is claimed to have been sent to Georgia to provoke chaos and lead protest demonstrations in the country.

In fact, Patrick Hernandes has lived in Georgia for years now. After his detention, Becka’s School founder and director Beka Berikashvili posted a comment on the social network saying that Patrick Hernandes had worked at the school for several years as an English teacher.

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Other Facebook users, including Patrick Hernandes’ co-workers and friends, posted similar messages on the social network (1;2;3;4). 

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According to Patrick Hernandes’ Facebook messages and photos, he was in Georgia in 2019 and returned in 2020. That same year, in an interview with Caucasus Business Week, he talked about working remotely from Georgia during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the interview, he recalls learning about Georgia on the social network when he was looking for a country to work from, as remote work allowed him to do so. According to him, he visited Georgia for the first time in September 2019 but had to leave after a few months, although he was sure that he would definitely come back and live in Georgia for a long time. He returned to the country in January 2020.

Patrick Hernandes

Patrick Hernandes also spoke about his activities in a report on Beka’s School, produced by the Formula TV company in 2023. In the report, he said that he had been working for Beka’s School for four years. According to the reporter, along with his English teacher certificate, Hernandes has a psychology degree from the University of California; he left California at the age of 22 and lived in Spain, Bulgaria, Romania, Serbia, Hungary, and Estonia before coming to Georgia.

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Thus, pro-government pages use the detention of Patrick Hernandes during protests against the so-called law on agents to spread the conspiracy theory about the USA and claim that he was sent to Georgia to incite unrest and that he is “Ackerman’s instructor;” however, there is actually no evidence that he has been engaged in any suspicious activity in Georgia.

At this stage, the Myth Detector has been unable to independently verify the claims made by pro-government pages about Brian Jay Bingham, who was detained during the rally. Upon receiving any new information, the article will be updated.

Update: After his release from the pretrial detention center, Brian Jay Bingham said that he came to Georgia as a tourist and was unaware that protests were taking place in the country; however, he went to the protest to see what was happening at the parliament. The Myth Detector has not obtained any further information about him at this stage.

Archive: (1;2;3)


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Topic: Politics
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