President Maduro Dances Salsa While Venezuela Suffers

With hunger and violent crime gripping the country and the opposition calling for his head, this is Maduro’s new strategy for winning hearts and minds. That is an uphill battle; most Venezuelans would like him to leave power.

Caracas (AFP) – Venezuelans are running short of food, medicine and patience, but fear not: President Nicolas Maduro is here to cheer them up — by dancing salsa.

“People say I’m crazy for dancing salsa.” 

— President Nicolas Maduro

Grinning under his black mustache, the burly, towering socialist swivels his hips and twirls his wife Cilia Flores in front of the cameras.

“Hands up everybody who dances salsa! Admit it, we’re all crazy!”

“People say I’m crazy for dancing salsa,” he said on one recent broadcast.

“Hands up everybody who dances salsa! Admit it, we’re all crazy!”

With hunger and violent crime gripping the country and the opposition calling for his head, this is Maduro’s new strategy for winning hearts and minds. That is an uphill battle; most Venezuelans would like him to leave power.

“He is ridiculous. It’s offensive. He is laughing at the people. Instead of spending money on television programs, he should be bringing us medicine.”

— Euro Bermudez, 62, coming out of a bank in Caracas after collecting his pension

Wednesday was a case in point as Maduro celebrated his 54th birthday with a live performance by old-school salsa greats El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico.

“What a surprise!” the president exclaimed before taking the first lady for a spin, dancing to the classic “Me libere.”

A former bus driver, Maduro has often sung and danced at campaign rallies.

But his continued capering amid the crisis, and his recent launch of a dedicated salsa radio show, seem like bad taste to some weary citizens.

“He is ridiculous. It’s offensive. He is laughing at the people,” said Euro Bermudez, 62, coming out of a bank in Caracas after collecting his pension.

“Instead of spending money on television programs, he should be bringing us medicine.”

Spoof photo “memes” of Maduro online have shown him dancing in various inappropriate settings: at the scene of a crime or in a long queue for food.

But truck driver Orlando Zacarias, 49, said he saw Maduro’s dancing as a necessary means of continuing the “socialist revolution.”

“Little by little, he is reaching out to each and every Venezuelan to transmit his message,” Zacarias said…(read more)

Source: AFP-yahoo