CARACAS — The United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) ordered its members to celebrate socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro’s 60th birthday on Wednesday by baking cakes, singing happy birthday, and bombarding social media with videos.
“Another year of life being a soldier of my Homeland, at the order of the Venezuelan people,” Maduro tweeted on Wednesday. “Thanks to life, to my beloved people and to God for his great blessings. Here we will continue standing, on the path of Chávez winning!”
Unlike Maduro’s highly criticized 58th birthday festivities, celebrated amidst the nation’s fierce Chinese coronavirus pandemic lockdown, and his 59th birthday bash – which included streetball performances, rappers, and a mariachi repertoire led by Mexican singer Pablo Montero – the burden of celebrating the socialist dictator 60th birthday was placed on PSUV members and the nation’s public institutions, which are controlled entirely by the socialist regime.
https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1djGXPadBDLGZ
The Maduro regime’s Finance Ministry published a post on Wednesday that proclaimed,
Today [November 23], Venezuelans congratulate him [Maduro] on his sixtieth birthday, wishing him the best of success, life, health, wisdom, prosperity, love and, above all, strength to continue walking the paths of peace, sovereignty and continue building the paths of socialism, safeguarding the legacy of the Eternal Commander [Hugo Chávez].
In reality, Maduro’s approval rating is at an all-time low. By August, Maduro, who has clung to power after holding sham presidential elections in 2018, only counted with a five-percent approval rating in Venezuela, making him the least liked president in Latin America. The “Bolivarian Socialism” movement that Maduro leads since the death of Hugo Chávez in March 2013 has caused the worst migrant crisis in Venezuelan and Latin American history, with more than 7.1 million Venezuelans having fled from socialism as of November 2022.
PSUV’s Vice Presidency of Mobilization and Events issued an “operations order” on Tuesday in which it instructed the party’s members to bake elaborate cakes and sign “Happy Birthday” in honor of the socialist dictator’s 60th birthday. The orders stated that the materials and ingredients for the elaboration of the cakes were to be supplied by the governors, mayors, or a designated person “depending on whether the district is under authorities aligned with the Bolivarian Revolution or not.”
In addition to giving specific instructions on where and how to carry out Maduro’s birthday activities, the PSUV’s birthday orders instructed members that a birthday cake must be baked by each existing Hugo Chávez Battle Unit (UBCH), “socialist patrol” groups tasked with defending the socialist regime, combat “enemies” of the revolution, and support the socialist party through its rigged elections. It is estimated that at least 14,381 UBCH groups are active as of August 2022.
Lastly, the orders suggested that Maduro be tagged or mentioned in pictures and/or videos of the activities on his social media accounts. A majority of the videos published were posted on Twitter on November 23, Maduro’s birthday, in an attempt to flood the social media outlet with regime propaganda.
PSUV lawmaker Ronald Bastardo published a video on his Twitter account showing the birthday festivities organized for Maduro in the city of Ciudad Bolívar, located in the state of Bolívar. The cake was accompanied by a large statue of “Súper Bigote” (Super Mustache), Maduro’s superhero alter ego.
In the city of Upata, the responsibility of the public celebration of the socialist dictator’s birthday fell upon the city’s mayor, Yulisbeth García, who left evidence of the activity through a video posted online.
The regime’s main media channel, Venezolana de Televisión (VTV), published a video in which a handful of unnamed Venezuelan citizens “wished” a happy birthday to Maduro, with one of them “congratulating” Maduro for “locking down” the nation’s airports, allegedly preventing the “erratic” spread of the Chinese Coronavirus. As of November 2022, the Maduro regime still maintains fierce international coronavirus-related travel restrictions.
VTV also published a video of citizens singing happy birthday to Maduro from the town hall of the capital city of Caracas.
Socialist lawmaker Bussy Galeano was in charge of posting a video of the National Assembly’s cake while Francisco Torrealba, member of PSUV’s directive, published a video of the “happy birthday” song from the socialist party’s main headquarters in Caracas.
Similar incidents occurred and were documented in Cabimas, Valencia, Girardot, Maracay, Barinas, Sucre, Miranda, and Jesús Enrique Lossada, as well as public institutions such as the offices of Venezuela’s Social Security en El Paraiso, Caracas and the Ministry of Housing and Habitat.
In some cases, children were used in the birthday videos for Maduro.
The regime’s “educational” channel, ViveTV, published a video that features a Venezuelan boy and a girl wishing the socialist dictator a happy birthday.
Twitter user José Ávila, who describes himself as “radically Chavista” on his Twitter profile, published a video that features a child next to two cakes and a copy of Maduro’s official presidential portrait, with a picture of Hugo Chávez in the background.
An unnamed school in Tinaquillo, Cojedes, published a video in which a teacher instructs a group of pre-school children to sing happy birthday to the socialist dictator.
Maduro capped his 60th birthday celebrations by posting a video to his account on the Chinese social media platform TikTok on Wednesday.
“I celebrate my 60 years! Firmer than ever, fighting for the happiness of Venezuela,” the TikTok video’s description read.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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