Maduro, desperate to cowl up the ills of his time in energy, has adopted a brand new marketing campaign technique to draw voters.
He joined the video platform TikTok in 2020 and has accrued greater than 2.2 million followers to date. On Instagram Stay, he confirmed off his rally, singing, dancing and praying with supporters.
As bike taxi driver Alfred Rajoy scrolled via the video on his telephone, he vividly recounted how he attended a current rally.
He informed Al Jazeera he was proud to be one of many motorcyclists near the president.
Rajoy’s trench coat testomony to his devotion to the Chavismo motion: Maduro and Chavez’s faces are emblazoned on the entrance, one on all sides of the zipper.
However he acknowledged that Maduro’s authorities faces criticism for its corruption and human rights file.
“As everyone knows, we now have skilled failures right here, excessive failures. There’s some discontent in our communities and throughout the nation. Some individuals near Nicolás Maduro did one thing flawed,” Rajoy stated.
He additionally expressed a level of dissatisfaction with authorities actions aimed toward disrupting and blocking the opposition. Dozens of opposition members have been detained within the run-up to Sunday’s marketing campaign, and eating places and motels internet hosting rival presidential candidate González have been closed.
However some supporters consider the tales are misinformation or, worse, fabricated by the opposition and overseas brokers.
Guillermo Avila, 24, a Maduro supporter, stated he believed a lot of the criticism he noticed on-line was the product of opposition manipulation.
“They painting our authorities as a totalitarian and authoritarian authorities, however in actuality it’s a participatory and important authorities,” Avila stated. “It supplies an area for everybody. We see the nation’s economic system rising and folks wanting glad within the streets.
However for Gunson, Maduro’s “man of the individuals” narrative does not sq. together with his file of alleged abuses.
“Maduro positions himself as a employee as a result of he did not go to school and he is a bus driver,” Gunson stated. “However this can be a authorities that jails union leaders for protesting. These are individuals who get wealthy by exploiting the poor and name themselves socialists. The paradox lies of their center names.
As a result of Maduro is thought for cracking down on dissent, many opposition voters concern the president and his supporters won’t respect González’s victory.
Bermudez sat in an armchair in his lounge, watching Maduro’s marketing campaign on a small tv. For him, Maduro’s defeat is unthinkable. This prospect even introduced tears to his eyes: “The failure of the election will result in the lack of the nation and the destruction of Venezuela.”
Different supporters of Maduro, nevertheless, are much less fatalistic about the potential for ending almost 25 years of socialist rule.
“It is a democracy,” Rajoy stated. “Crucial factor is that individuals vote — and that the outcomes are revered.”
Each are eagerly awaiting the outcomes on Election Day, which, not coincidentally, falls on the late Chavez’s birthday.
