Two Venezuelans who emigrated to escape the economic difficulties of their country are causing laughter with a mobile game that mocks President Nicolas Maduro's decision of giving a home to a woman who threw a mango at him, attracting his attention so she could request a house.
Gabriel Diaz plays "Maduro Mango Attack" in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on May 5, 2015. According to Google Play, the online store for Android applications, more than 10,000 people downloaded the free app in the first week of its release. | AP Photo Natacha Pisarenko
Players also receive rewards for hitting the president of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, with a bag full of dollar bills, or for striking the late President Hugo Chavez, while embodied in a small bird with a red beret, in clear reference to the statements Maduro made during his campaign when he claimed that Chavez had visited him in that form.
The aim of "Maduro Mango Attack" is to accumulate points by hitting the socialist leader with a mango as he flees across the screen to the beat of techno music and calls upon a major opposition leader to unleash his fury.
The game was inspired by an incident last month when a woman threw a mango at Maduro's head as he drove a bus through a crowd of supporters. Hours later, Maduro showed on national television the fruit where Marleny Olivo had written her phone number and granted her request for a new home.
Shoes, cakes and eggs are still the most popular objects that detractors throw at politicians worldwide, but the missiles thrown at Maduro come from his followers. At first the president received the new trend well, joking on April 28 by saying that it was the time of the mango and, to the chagrin of his bodyguards, encouraged his supporters to throw fruit with their requests for Government assistance.
However, more recently, he attempted to curb this practice. "You have to be careful, comrades," Maduro said in a demonstration on the first of May after dodging a T-shirt. "Sometimes an expression of kindness can become something else."
Fernando Malave, one of the creators of the game, said he did not mean to encourage violence against the president but that he wanted to use humour to attract attention to the problems of Venezuela. He explained that he and the other creators of the game, Gabriel Diaz, moved to Argentina in search of work last year because they were fed up with the high crime and poor job prospects in Venezuela amid an economic crisis marked by rising inflation and widespread shortages.
The problems have eroded support for Maduro, reducing them by almost half, since he was elected president in 2013. His approval rating in April was of 28% according to a survey conducted by the local firm Datanalisis.
"People are tired and everyone wants a change, but nobody knows what kind of change," said Malave. "We hope that humour, which has always connected Venezuelans, can relieve some of their daily stress."
Source: elnuevoherald.com