President Maduro's electoral propaganda omnipresent in Venezuela

Photo: Juan Barreto Agence France-Presse Nicolás Maduro appears as a cartoon superhero under the character “Super-bigote” (Super-moustache), which depicts him fighting Superman-style against the country's enemies.

Margioni Bermudez – Agence France-Presse and Esteban Rojas – Agence France-Presse In Caracas

Posted at 12:02 p.m. Updated at 12:07 p.m.

• Americas

Dozens of drones depict the face of Nicolás Maduro in the night sky of Maracaibo, the oil capital of Venezuela, often deprived of electricity. Despite the dry finances of a drained country, the outgoing president is not skimping on campaign resources for Sunday's election.

Mr. Maduro, who is seeking a third 6-year term against Edmundo González Urrutia, former ambassador at the top of the polls, is using all the means of the State for propaganda that is already omnipresent in normal times, but which multiplied before the presidential.

TV and radio advertisements, billboards, murals, screens on road toll booths, social networks, country tours, songs, comics , reality shows… The arsenal is as imposing as it is varied and inventive.

In Maracaibo, the drones then draw a rooster, a new symbol of Nicolás Maduro, then images of the former president Hugo Chávez (1999-2013). On a huge stage worthy of a rock star concert, Mr. Maduro makes speeches promising prosperity after years of crisis that plunged the country into poverty.

On stage, the 61-year-old man with the thick mustache doesn't hold back and sings, dances and jumps during a well-rehearsed show.

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This “saturation” of the public space allows him to remain in people’s minds, “in particular by boasting of being the heir of Chávez”, who “persists in the collective imagination”, explains to AFP León Hernández, member of the Information and Communication Research Institute of the Andrés Bello Catholic University.

A show campaign

The government uses all the tricks to gain favor with the vote.

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“I activate the button,” said the president during an event in Caracas, and immediately, credits for small businesses are transferred from state accounts. A woman is startled when she receives a message on her cell phone confirming the transaction!

Photo: Juan Carlos Hernandez, Agence France-Presse

Nicolás Maduro now describes himself as a “fighting cock”. The president's communications experts created the new nickname to emphasize the president's good form compared to that of his opponent Edmundo González Urrutia, 74, who has more difficulty moving.

Power also often dictates priorities. He thus revived the theme of the Essequibo territory, in dispute with Guyana for months.

The presence of Mr. Maduro on state television is permanent, with broadcasts several times a day from its campaign rallies across the country. He boasts of having been in 250 cities during the campaign.

Nicolás Maduro also appears as a cartoon superhero under the character of “Super-bigote” ( Super-moustache), which depicts him fighting Superman-style against the enemies of the country, monsters caricatured as opponents or the former American president Donald Trump.

The head of state, a former bus driver in his youth, also often appears at the wheel of a pick-up truck, chatting with his wife, Cilia Flores, ministers and civil servants, as if he were the star of a reality TV show.

A film about his life was previewed in an emblematic theater in Caracas, at the same time as a biographical book. A music competition was broadcast over several weeks to select his campaign songs.

“Hours of television, hours of advertising,” Mr. Hernández emphasizes.

Omnipresent on social networks

The press, for its part, denounces the blocking of certain information portals on the Web, while more than 400 media outlets have been closed in 25 years of Chavista power, according to NGOs defending journalists.

Although Nicolás Maduro claims he is “censored” on social media, state propaganda, both clips in his favor and sometimes defamatory critical videos of the opposition, is incessant on platforms such as YouTube .

We can thus see the leader of the opposition, Maria Corina Machado, declared ineligible, with a “puppet” bearing the image of Mr. González Urrutia, or again, the opposition “ceding” Venezuelan oil to the United States or fomenting violent plots.

Figures of the military high command released a video showing Ms. Machado and Mr. González speaking to university students, with a blackboard in the background showing proposals to privatize the state oil company PDVSA and education.

AFP verified that the video had been doctored and that the board was in fact empty.

And while posters with Mr. Maduro’s face cover the streets and avenues of Caracas, the image of Edmundo González Urrutia seems banned.

Mr. González has given few interviews to the national media, in a climate of self-censorship. In an attempt to counter the propaganda, the opposition is focusing its energy on social networks, where it is calling for people to turn out to vote.