Under a three-story-tall banner blaring “You are all Chavez,” Jorge Rafael Hernandez crouched low with a can of spray paint, outlining on a wall a black heart and the words “And long live Chavez…”
He and his three-man crew had already sprayed some 20 murals over the past week all over the “20 de enero” slum where support for the late President Hugo Chavez, their “Comandante,” remains rock solid even after his death Tuesday. Dozens of other graffiti crews have also been at work, showing their allegiance in slogans and murals on countless doorways and walls.
“This is how we keep Chavez alive,” said Jorge Luis Gonzales, a state bank accountant overseeing Hernandez’s graffiti crew. “This is going to continue because the elections are coming, and the Comandante needs a big surprise. The opposition has their own graffitists, and we have ours.”
Nearly a week after Chavez’s death, Venezuelans have shown no signs they’re ready to lower the rhetorical temperature. In fact, the national obsession with politics has only intensified as Venezuelans gear up for April 14 elections pitting Chavez successor Nicolas Maduro against opposition candidate Gov. Henrique Capriles.
All over this gritty capital built amid rolling hills, evidence of more than a decade of political warfare over Chavez and his socialist legacy is everywhere, from murals and billboards to even the T-shirts and caps worn by people in the city’s chaotic streets.
In the eastern half of Caracas, which has long been known as an opposition stronghold, neighborhoods exploded in fireworks and car-honking Sunday night when Capriles launched his candidacy by accusing Maduro of using Chavez’s death for political gain.
On the back of a barbecue shack in the neighborhood of Marquez, a mural with orange-and-yellow flames pleaded “Something Different!” while Capriles’ youthful face looked out of graffiti stenciled here and there on surrounding blocks. Chavez images were conspicuously absent.
“I’m thinking that we’ll have continuity for three years, more or less, and then real democracy will come,” predicted Jose Garnica, a business owner reading the newspaper in a park bench.
He said the government had seized an apartment building he owned in the city center to house poor families and had only offered to pay him a pittance for it. He is still fighting to receive full compensation.
“This population …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News