“Whatever happened to Christmas?” Frank Sinatra once asked. In Venezuela, the answer is that it has been brought forward to October.
The country’s strongman president, Nicolás Maduro, made the curious announcement that this year’s festivities would begin in October on Monday, in the midst of a political bleak midwinter for his crisis-stricken land.
“It’s September and it already feels like Christmas. So this year – as a way of paying tribute to you and thanking you – I’m going to decree that Christmas be brought forward to 1 October,” Maduro proclaimed during one of his frequent TV appearances.
Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, who is facing what experts call the greatest political challenge of his turbulent 11-year rule, promised all Venezuelans a Christmas of “peace, happiness and security”.
That is unlikely given the uncertainty and anger produced by Maduro’s decision to claim victory in July’s presidential election without providing proof. A growing body of evidence suggests Maduro actually lost the election badly to his opposition rival Edmundo González – hence his refusal to release detailed voting tallies from polling stations. On Monday authorities issued a warrant for González’s arrest.
Whenever it starts, Christmas is likely to prove a cold winter’s night for senior members of Maduro’s ever-more authoritarian regime.
On Monday Bloomberg reported that the US was poised to announce individual sanctions against 15 senior administration figures for their alleged obstruction of “the holding of free and fair presidential elections”. Those expected to be targeted reportedly include the foreign minister, Yván Gil, the supreme court president, Caryslia Beatriz Rodríguez Rodríguez, and a top member of the electoral council, Rosalba Gil Pacheco.
Military officials responsible for a harsh post-election clampdown nicknamed Operación Tun Tun (Operation Knock Knock) are also expected to face sanctions as a result of the repression that saw more than 20 people killed and 1,700 thrown in jail as authorities moved to snuff out post-election protests.
That crackdown was given a yuletide soundtrack by security chiefs, though one distinctly lacking in Christmas cheer. A propaganda video produced by Venezuela’s military counterintelligence unit, DGCIM, set the arrest of one government target to the sinister music of a horror-film adaptation of Carol of the Bells.
The song’s adapted Spanish-language lyrics warn naughty children that a devil-like creature called Krampus is coming for them at Christmas. “If you’ve done wrong, then he will come!” the carol goes. “He’ll look for you! You’d better hide!”
While unusual, Maduro’s decision to move Christmas celebrations forward is not unprecedented. The politician has done the same on several occasions since taking office after the premature 2013 death of his mentor, Hugo Chávez. The Christmastide manoeuvre appears at least partly designed to shift attention from the woes of an administration that has overseen one of the worst peacetime economic collapses in modern history.
