‘Pearls’ from the Venezuelan Presidential Campaign
HAVANA TIMES — The Venezuelan electoral campaign was short but intense. Hours of speeches left dozens of quotes by the leading candidates: Interim president Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Henrique Capriles, who face off tomorrow to determine the successor to the late president Hugo Chavez (1999-2013). Here’s a selection of some of the phrases voiced during the electoral campaign from dpa news.
Maduro quotes:
– “I’m the son of Chavez and I’m ready to be president.”
– “Chavez will win on April 14.”
– “I’m an apostle of Chavez.”
– “If anyone ‘of the people’ votes against Nicolas Maduro, they’re voting against themselves. They will be bringing on the Macarapana curse.”
– “Suddenly there came a bird, ‘Chiquitico,’ and it flew around me three times (…) it chirped a little while, flew around me again, and then left. I felt his (Chavez’s) spirit.”
– “To the bourgeois, electoral campaigns are simple carnivals for their demagoguery and lies.”
– “Flaky little Capriles, wishy-washy little Capriles, the little rich boy.”
– “Never in my life did I ever aspire to any political position at all. I always dreamed of reaching old age alongside Commander Chavez.”
– “I’m not a opportunist, I’m not an individualist, I’m not ambitious for power, and I’m not bourgeois.”
– “They want to be Yanquis. Who doubts that the United States is the one who sustains, supports and finances the candidacy of the little right-wing Yanqui?”
– “Who doubts that the candidate of the bourgeoisie is the candidate of the gringo empire aiming to take over Venezuela? No one!”
– “Let’s give them a devastating knockout that will make them pick up their little bourgeois guy lying on the ground.”
– “We know that our commander is standing before Christ. Something influenced the selection of a Pope from South America. Some new hand appeared, and Christ said, ‘The time of South America has come.’ That’s how it looks to us” (referring to the selection of Jorge Bergoglio as the Pope).
Capriles quotes:
– “The only rumor that’s going to be a truth the size of this country is that we’re going to win Sunday’s election.”
– “On Sunday we will tell the clique that rules: ‘You will become the opposition.’”
– “You would win the election in Havana, but I’m going to win the elections in Venezuela.”
– “In Venezuela we’re not going to impose the Cuban model. We’re Venezuelans and we want this country to move forward.”
– “Someone threw (Maduro) a book on the geography of Venezuela and he thought it was an attack. It’s not our fault that he doesn’t know Venezuela. We know it.”
– “Let him talk, the more he does the better. I don’t think he saw any birdie. I think he swallowed the birdie, and that’s what he has inside his head.”
– “The ones who are ‘connected’ say they can guarantee peace, but they’ve divided the country.”
– “The liars must be buried with votes so they won’t even think about governing this country again. The people are going to give that toripollo (big bird-brain) a thrashing.”
– “I haven’t disrespected anyone. “Toripollo” isn’t an insult. It means someone with the body of a bull and the face of a chicken. It’s a popular saying.”
– “They need to look on the teleprompter to see if Toripollo, alias ‘fresh lie,’ has sent some speech that excites anyone.”
– “This is a spiritual battle. Whenever I hear that there are people threatening the people, I say that only Satan, the devil, does that kind of thing to intimidate human beings.”
– “They asked him (Maduro) how he’ll solve inflation, and he said with cataflam (painkillers). No, my brother, inflation can’t be solved with cataflam. Inflation is solved with increased production.”
– “This is a fight of David against Goliath, and every one of you has a David inside you. You have the power to defeat the powerful. That fight is difficult but not impossible.”
– “I told the other candidate, that the people themselves who gave him the nickname ‘fresh lie,’ will be defending each and every vote on the 14th.”