“Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez dies”. This is today’s highlight news as well as a splash of detailed informed accounts related to the ongoing mourning in Venezuela. Gone are the Photoshopped Government controlled pics of a smiling Chavez sided by two Colgate teenagers released some weeks ago.
As of today, the Venezuelan Information Minister – oh yes, they need a proper PR Ministry for it, can do nothing more than actively construct the mourning national case for a “beloved leader” and work his knuckles so that History does not fail in rendering homage to one more Father Figure similar to Castro.
No talk of dictatorship whatsoever. Contenders, do not fret about it, Hugo Chavez shall be turned into a worshipping myth, el líder máximo que Venezuela jamás tendrá de nuevo! Reputation management beyond the grave! It would not be a surprise if they mummified him to keep Chavez on display and grant him eternal national recognition.
It would be so much easier for the next leader to build upon this live mummy the perfect power speeches. You might have noticed that with certain leaders, it is either mummifying (as with Lenin) or grave digging some years afterwards to make sure the grave is what it says it is about.
However, the Chavez myth actually started yesterday when Venezuela’s Vice President accused U.S. Diplomats of literally infecting Chavez with cancer and expelled them. Never one to miss a good show, today Mahmoud Ahmadinejad raises the international nonsense by purporting that Chavez fell martyr to a suspect illness adding on yesterday’s allegations.
Power vacuum is handy also for quite a few groups of interests from North and South America and it will be interesting to know whether the Opposition is ready to take advantage of it or shall succumb to storytelling.
Skipping the déjà-vu of a population’s mass trauma, this must certainly bring back memories of Kim Jon-il burial in North Korea and the enacted tears flooding the funeral ceremony.
Communication for Development of Ideas 