Woman: They just shot dead the neighbor's kid.
Chavista man: We have a satellite
Chavsita man: Shit! Power Outage!
This cartoon is brilliant because it addresses bluntly the inexplicable hold that chavismo has over a portion of the lower classes who after ten years still support him no matter what, no matter how little in reality their lives have improved. Note the old TV, it is not a flat screen. Note that its antenna is a coat hanger. Note that the people are, well, disheveled. Note the contrast in the eyes of the dark half.
The woman probably has doubts about Chavez now. The murder of her neighbor's kid (a female neighbor in the original Spanish) is reaching her. She knows that her own kid, following the empty gesticulation of his Dad might be next in line, or at least as soon as he grows old enough to hang out.
This cartoon raises the question as to what holds such people to Chavez. They have to deal with power outages for sure, when the president spends hundred of millions on a satellite that is really not a necessity for Venezuela except for the propaganda needs of chavismo. Could that money have helped solve the power problem in at least some areas? Is the ability to refrigerate scarce food less important than a f%!$%! satellite that will only transmit Chaevz speeches? What has done Chavez for this family? Do they have a steady job? Do they have running water? We know they have no security as per the neighbors misfortune, but do they have good medical care? How better off are they than ten years ago? Really, how much better? Was barrio adentro good enough to compensate for the lack of a real job which would have allowed them to at least have a proper TV antenna? As I have written often in the past, in some sectors of the population chavismo is just a religion and Weil demonstrates it here brilliantly as people prefer to eat crow but feel cheaply "patrioteros" with Chavez.
These people should follow the Miami trial rather than the satellite launch. Then they will now why the neighbor's kid got murdered.
-The end-