CARACAS, Venezuela – The regime of socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro debuted an official salsa theme song for Súper Bigote (“Super Mustache”), Maduro’s cartoon alter ego, local outlets reported this week.
The song, eponymously titled “Súper Bigote,” is performed by Venezuelan musician El Conde de la Salsa (“The Count of Salsa”) and debuted on the social media sites of every major regime media outlet and official page. The regime emphasized the use of Chinese social media platform TikTok to spread the song.
The lyrics present Maduro’s alter-ego as a popular and “indestructible” superhero that comes “from the people,” and is accompanied by his “Pretty Little Cilia,” the dictator’s wife Cilia Flores and “First Combatant” of the socialist regime.
Much like his predecessor, Hugo Chávez, Maduro has waged a fierce campaign against America’s iconic superheroes — with a special animosity towards Spider-man, who is allegedly behind Venezuela’s violent crime.
Despite over two decades of condemnation of superheroes and American media as a whole, which the regime considers detrimental to the ideological values of their socialist revolution, the Maduro regime saw fit to rip off America’s most iconic superhero, Superman, for ideological purposes.
The socialist derivative of Superman is Maduro’s idealized persona and, emulating the regime’s constant anti-U.S. narrative and its penchant for blaming everything wrong on the United States — including all of the socialist-made disasters that have been unleashed on Venezuela — the main villain is a cartoonish rendition of former President Donald Trump named Mister Odio (“Mister Hate”).
The Maduro regime did not see fit to update Super Mustache’s arch-nemesis after President Joe Biden was elected.
The rogues’ gallery of villains in the “Super Bigote” series includes Venezuelan “opposition” figures, the Organization of American States (OAS), “The Inflation Monster,” and the socialist regime’s very own nightmarish bureaucracy. In some of the more recent episodes, Super Mustache is accompanied by Súper Cilita (“Super Little Cilia”), the alter-ego of Maduro’s wife Cilia Flores.
Super Mustache has also featured cameos of high-ranking members of the socialist regime, such as Venezuelan Vice President Delcy Rodríguez; her brother Jorge Rodríguez, who leads the Venezuelan National Assembly; and the vice president of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and alleged drug lord Diosdado Cabello.
Recently, Maduro’s superhero has been more directly deployed as an ideological weapon against Venezuela’s children. In September, the socialist regime launched a line of “Super Mustache” school supplies. “If they have Superman, we have ‘Super Mustache,’” Maduro said at the time.
Last Christmas, Super Mustache and Super Little Cilia action figures were given away to children as Christmas gifts, which sparked controversy among parents and teachers.
Belkis Bolívar, member of the Venezuelan Federation of Teachers (FVM), told the Spanish news agency EFE in December that the regime’s priorities are “inverted.”
“They give ideologizing toys to children, but deny them the right to a quality education, to have a decent health system,” she said. Venezuela’s ruined education system and absurdly low wages have prompted teachers to protest throughout January and February. Many of the teachers in the nation’s public education system only earn between $6 to $20 in local currency.
The Super Mustache theme song is not without its criticism on TikTok, with users expressing comments such as “a country falling apart, and these plugged-in people [someone in cahoots with the Maduro regime for benefits] mocking the people,” and “unheard of, you have to be a bootlicker to make such a ridiculous song.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.