Venezuela opposition win unleashes jokes and insults

By Andrew Cawthorne

CARACAS (Reuters) - The most ubiquitous image in Venezuela of recent years has been a stylized depiction of late socialist leader Hugo Chavez's eyes gazing paternally from billboards, T-shirts and buildings around the nation.

With a simple shift of the brows and widening of the eyes, however, opposition supporters have created an online meme showing a startled Chavez presumably turning in his grave at his successor's defeat at a major election.

The new "Chavez eyes" picture is one of a stream of jokes and doctored photos being gleefully spread by online-savvy opposition supporters after the government lost the legislature on Sunday for the first time in 16 years.

Another shows President Nicolas Maduro flying off in Superman gear with the caption: "Bye, comrades. I'm off to destroy another planet." The Socialist Party's No. 2 Diosdado Cabello is lampooned as queuing at the airport in disguise and sunglasses.

Such mockery illustrates the pent-up feelings of many opposition supporters who endured defeat in almost all of the nearly 20 elections since Chavez first won in 1998 and believe his "21st century socialism" ruined their country.

But it also undercuts calls for moderation by prominent leaders of the Democratic Unity coalition such as Henrique Capriles as a potentially ugly showdown looms between an opposition-led congress and Maduro's executive.

CUTTING CARTOONS

There has been no shortage of creativity on the other side, either. One feisty pro-government site shows an opposition megaphone morphing into a gun to symbolize a hidden violent agenda. Government dissidents are seen chasing U.S. dollars with their tongue out in another cartoon.

In an already hyper-charged atmosphere, one of the coalition's least discreet leaders, Henry Ramos, who may lead the new assembly from January, has courted controversy by slamming the legislature's pro-government TV service as a "disgrace" and saying its bosses will be fired.

Furious state media have played his remarks over-and-over while workers at the TV station say he is inciting violence against them. Officials are painting Ramos as the face of all that is bad with Venezuela's opposition.

In the kind of bellicose language, Venezuelans have become used to on both sides of the political divide during the tumultuous years of "Chavismo", Maduro blasted Ramos a "fascist".

The president also caused a stir earlier this week when reading out messages sent him via Twitter.

"'Nicolas Maduro, suck it'!" he said, reading one insulting tweet before raising an eyebrow and looking straight at the camera to reply in kind: "Suck it yourself!"

(Editing by Alexandra Ulmer and Alistair Bell)

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