It’s all quite absurd. President Nicolás Maduro states on state TV that Christmas starts on October 1. “It already smells like Christmas, it smells like Christmas,” declares President Nicolás Maduro in his regular Monday program called “With Maduro +”. Now it will last for three months. Maduro has more than enough power to decide that. In his eleventh year as president, it is he, and not church leaders, who decides when the Advent candles will be lit. At Christmas 2022, thousands of children in Venezuela received a gift from the government. Super-mustache President Maduro is dressed as a kind of superman who constantly saves Venezuela, and the play caused concern among many parents. Photo: Jesus Vargas / AP “Peace, joy and security”, he promises the people. What he doesn’t say anything about is that just before an arrest warrant was issued for Edmundo González, the man who Spain, the EU Parliament and several other countries believe is the rightful president of the country. The joy is not for everyone. The opposition’s presidential candidate Edmundo González won the election overwhelmingly with 67 percent of the vote, according to the opposition’s own tally, which was reviewed by researchers in the United States and the media organizations AP and The Washington Post. After the arrest warrant, González was granted political asylum in Spain, where he is now. Photo: Ana Beltran / Reuters Serious election fraud allegations It has been neither peaceful nor safe for many Venezuelans in recent months. On July 28, Maduro once again won the presidential election, according to himself and the National Electoral Council (CNE), which he controls. Supporters of President Maduro celebrate the election results on September 28. The woman is dressed as a “super bigot”, or super-mustache, a cartoon character where Maduro is a Superman-inspired hero. Photo: Cristian Hernandez / AP Country after country has asked to see the election results and accuses him of electoral fraud. But the evidence has not been forthcoming. Some hackers in North Macedonia were blamed for that, according to Maduro, who also had no evidence for those claims. Meanwhile, the critics shouted that there had never been such extensive electoral fraud as now. The first week they protested, but then the crowd quieted down. Several thousand Venezuelans took to the streets to protest what they believed to be electoral fraud. Maduro and the military launched “Operation Bank-Bank” and arrested the protesters. Photo: Samir Aponte / Reuters Maduro had warned of bloodshed if he did not win, but it happened anyway. Over 20 protesters were dead, around 2,000 were imprisoned. People feared torture. Sharing The Simpsons jokes about the president on social media was enough to land him behind bars. It was unlikely to be a merry pre-Christmas atmosphere when Maduro chose precisely a Christmas carol to warn against it. Merry Christmas, a woman in Caracas wished back in 2022. Whether this year’s Christmas will be good depends on who you ask in Venezuela. Photo: Matias Delacroix / AP Operation “bank-bank” Venezuelans love Christmas. And they all know the beloved Christmas carol “Tun tun”, or knock-knock. In the song, it is asked who is knocking on the door, before it is answered that it is the people of peace who have come to celebrate Christmas. “Tun tun” is also the nickname of the military operation to imprison oppositionists and demonstrators. Or “terrorists” and “fascists”, as Maduro often calls them. The journalists of the online newspaper Caracas Chronicles shared this Christmas message from the intelligence service DGCIM in Venezuela. In the video, to the tune of “Carol of the bells”, a handcuffed man with a sack over his head is led away by the military. Photo: Skjermdump/X In August, the president sang the song for students, but changed the lyrics. He threatened that “kids” would be sent to one of the country’s worst prisons. A horror film version of the popular Christmas carol “Carol of the bells”, translated as “Klokkenenes klang” in Norwegian, has also reached most people. The demonstrations against electoral fraud were severely cracked down on by the Venezuelan government. This woman appeared at a public meeting in the capital Caracas under the auspices of the opposition a month after the presidential election. Photo: Pedro Rances Mattey / AFP The propaganda video appears to have been made by Venezuela’s Military Intelligence Service (DGCIM). It shows a person in handcuffs with a black sack over his head. He is led into a military car before the doors are closed. “If you do something wrong, he will come,” sings a bright female voice in the video. “You should hide.” Economic collapse With this double Christmas message, the festive season in Venezuela starts today. Public buildings are lit up with Christmas chains and Christmas trees. For many, it will be a tough Christmas season. The wide street Los Proceres in Caracas is usually decorated for Christmas, as here in 2020. In addition, all public workplaces will be decorated with Christmas trees from October this year. Photo: Matias Delacroix / AP A quarter of the population has migrated. That is over 7.7 million in ten years. In addition, you have aunt “Veronica” and grandfather “Carlos” who have passed away because there were no more medicines left in the hospital. It is clear that there are empty chairs around the table in many homes. Buying Christmas presents is difficult when the country has gone through one of the worst economic collapses of our time, without being at war. The opposition is also divided. Presidential candidate Edmundo González was picked up in a Spanish military plane and taken to asylum in Spain. Maduro’s Christmas message is that the election is over and people must get on with their lives. Their private lives. Yula has always been used politically in Venezuela to say that the country is on a steady course forward under the government’s control. Christmas also started early in Venezuela in 2020 and 2021. Maduro wanted to spread Christmas cheer while the covid pandemic was raging. Photo: Ariana Cubillos / AP It was hardly a surprise, because Maduro also started Christmas early in 2020 during the corona pandemic when things were difficult. He repeated the same in 2021. But never so early as now. Wanted internationally While this autumn Maduro has attacked X, Elon Musk and the highly popular communication app Whatssapp, which he has asked everyone in Venezuela to delete, Venezuelans in Argentina have gathered evidence. The Superbart cartoon character of Nicolás Maduro has Elon Musk as his enemy. A new episode of the cartoon was published after Musk and Maduro argued on social media, and Maduro challenged Musk to a physical fight. Photo: Nicolas Maduro / news This week, a court in the country has wanted Maduro via Interpol for crimes against humanity in connection with the election. He is also being investigated for the same by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, while the UN Human Rights Council has already concluded that it has happened. Maduro responded by asking Interpol for help in issuing an arrest warrant for Argentina’s President Javier Milei, for stealing a plane and sending it to the United States. The mysterious plane was arrested at an airport in Argentina back in 2022. The Iranian employees on board were affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Hezbollah, police suspected. Along with Russia, China, Cuba and Honduras, Iran is among Venezuela’s allies. Menacing Santa Claus In the last two months after the election, Maduro’s alliance has stood firm. The repression is brutal, human rights organizations report. The very popular opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was deprived of the opportunity to run for president, but was allowed to decide who would run in her absence. Edmundo Gonzalez won the election, according to the opposition, but he has now been granted asylum in Spain, after an arrest warrant was issued for him. Photo: Pedro Rances Mattey / AFP Christmas lights, stately Christmas bonuses and subsidized Christmas food will not make people forget what happened. The distribution of children’s dolls in which Maduro is portrayed as superman, called super-mustache, will do. On 10 January, the newly elected president will be installed for a period of six years, until 2031. It can of course be provocative for many. Meanwhile, a Santa who calls people grumpy and threatens jail will never be able to create Christmas magic. Published 01.10.2024, at 20.25
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President Nicolás Maduro starts Christmas celebrations on 1 October – news Urix – Foreign news and documentaries
