Maduro becomes a mustachioed cartoon superhero to save Venezuela

Venezuela's humanitarian and economic crisis is so profound that it sometimes feels as though only a superhero can fix it. Now, thanks to the propaganda arm of president Nicolas Maduro's regime, that is exactly what is happening — at least on television screens — as a flying, caped crusader wearing blue underpants over his red tights repeatedly saves the socialist nation from the dastardly machinations of the White House.

The character, Super Bigote, which translates as Super Moustache, bears a striking resemblance to the mustachioed Maduro, albeit younger, more handsome and, of course, more muscular than the 59-year-old dictator and former bus driver.

The first episode of the one-minute cartoon, which aired in December, shows Super Bigote punching a U.S. “electromagnetic drone” out of the sky.

He goes on to save the life of a patient in an operating theatre after neutralizing the threat of the drone sent by the U.S. to sabotage Venezuela's electricity grid. For good measure, the episode also depicts Venezuelan opposition leaders, Henry Ramos Allup and Julio Borges, as chickens, one of them laying an egg out of fear at Super Bigote's heroics.

Borges, a former congressman, responded to the episode by tweeting photos of Venezuelans searching through refuse for scraps of food.

It is unclear whether the cartoon will succeed in winning over hearts and minds in a society ravaged by hunger, tyranny and one of the world's highest murder rates.

Nevertheless, Guillermo Zubillaga, Venezuela coordinator at the Americas Society-Council of the Americas, a New York think tank, insisted that Super Bigote should be taken seriously as a sophisticated piece of propaganda.

“It's an Orwellian, repetitive, in-yourface message that it doesn't matter what you do, we (the dictatorship) are not going anywhere,” Zubillaga said.

“That does have an impact on the population, which at this point doesn't really have much choice but to listen to radio or watch TV owned or controlled by the regime.” The cartoon comes as COVID-19 cases are “exploding” in Venezuela, according to Zubillaga.