Venezuelan Government Mocked over Cartoon in Which Nicolas Maduro Takes on US
Venezuelan Government Mocked over Cartoon in Which Nicolas Maduro Takes on US
"It’s an Orwellian, repetitive, in-your-face message that it doesn’t matter what you do, we [the dictatorship] are not going anywhere," said AS/COA's Guillermo Zubillaga to The Telegraph.
Venezuela’s humanitarian and economic catastrophe is so profound that it sometimes feels as though only a superhero could fix it.
Now, thanks to the propaganda arm of President Nicolás Maduro’s regime, that is exactly what is happening — at least on the South American country’s TV screens — as a flying, caped crusader wearing blue underpants over his red tights repeatedly saves his socialist nation from the dastardly machinations of the White House.
The character, Super Bigote, or Super Moustache in English, bears a striking resemblance to the moustachioed Maduro, albeit younger, more handsome and, of course, more muscular than the 59-year-old dictator and former bus driver…
It is unclear whether the juvenile cartoon will succeed in winning over hearts and minds in a society ravaged for years by hunger, tyranny and one of the world’s highest murder rates.
Nevertheless, Guillermo Zubillaga, Venezuela coordinator at the Americas Society-Council of the Americas, a New York think tank, insisted that Super Moustache should be taken seriously as a sophisticated piece of propaganda funded with state money.
“It’s an Orwellian, repetitive, in-your-face message that it doesn’t matter what you do, we [the dictatorship] are not going anywhere,” Mr Zubillaga told The Telegraph. “That does have an impact on the population, which at this point doesn’t really have much choice but to listen to radio or watch TV owned or controlled by the regime.”
The cartoon comes as Covid-19 cases are “exploding” in Venezuela, according to Mr Zubillaga. He dismisses the Maduro regime’s claim that it has vaccinated nearly 53% of the population as improbable…
