Govt gets primetime boost
TV show a sign of support ruling party has in Venezuela
It was show time for the mostwatched programme on Venezuela’s normally sleep-inducing state TV: Episode No. 240 of Hitting it With a Sledgehammer, the talk show hosted by one of the ruling socialist party’s most-revered — and reviled — leaders.
A military salsa band playing progovernment songs stirred up a live audience of several thousand state employees, pilot cadets and ideological die-hards.
Then Diosdado Cabello, sporting an army camouflage jacket, walked onto a stage bedecked in socialist party red to the ear-splitting thunder of a 1970s Venezuelan revolutionary anthem, Open the Door. For government supporters attending last week’s programme at an aviation academy in the central city of Maracay, the enthusiasm for Cabello, who the US and European Union have sanctioned for human rights abuses and corruption, bordered on Elvis Presley-like idolatry.
A pregnant woman, with the words “Venezuela is mine” scribbled in red lipstick across her bared belly, stomped her feet and waved her arms above her head in unison with the human wave moving across the packed bleachers. Some held up signs reading “Yankee Go Home” and “Always Loyal”. The Wednesday night show, which this week celebrates its fifth year on the air, is produced with a military-like precision and the latest in technology.
But there was nothing staged about the enormous energy that lasted until nearly 1am, when Cabello’s five-hour televised monologue finally ended last week.
“The European Union should worry about its own affairs,” declared Cabello, who heads the ruling partydominated constitutional assembly that is charged with re-writing the nation’s charter and has effectively gutted the opposition-controlled congress of all authority.
“They’ve got plenty of human beings they’ve allowed to drown in the Mediterranean, plenty of human rights violations that occur in their countries and to which they close their eyes.”
While lawmaker Juan Guaido’s recognition by dozens of countries as Venezuela’s rightful president has renewed the opposition’s hope of gaining power after two decades of socialist rule, it also has riled up President Nicolas Maduro’s still sizeable pro-government base.
For the past five years, Cabello, a 55-year-old retired army lieutenant with strong influence over the security forces, has crisscrossed the country with his TV show, pressing the flesh with socialist party stalwarts for whom he is their torchbearer, in many ways more than Maduro.
Every episode carries a heavy serving of recorded footage of the late President Hugo Chavez’s speeches. Far less frequent are references to Maduro, a sometimes Cabello rival behind the scenes.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and Amnesty International
are among groups that have complained about Cabello’s on-air harassment and attacks of opponents, the media and local NGOs.
Cabello has responded by saying such “information artillery” is needed to expose plots by government opponents and their backers among foreign governments and the mainstream media.
For government supporters, it’s red meat and an opportunity to recharge for the battle ahead.
“Venezuela wants peace,” Cabello asserted at the end of last week’s show, warning the US that it was ready to fight to defend Chavez’ revolution. “But if they try to steal our dreams of being a free, sovereign and independent nation, we won’t let them have any sleep and we’ll become their worst nightmare.”