page_title: Bolivarian propaganda
section_title: Opposition
hierarchical_section_title: Bolivarian propaganda / Themes / Enemies / Opposition
caption_attribution_description: English: Political graffiti mocking Capriles Radonski, quoting Hugo Chavez speech.
context_page_description: Bolivarian propaganda is a form of nationalist propaganda, especially in Venezuela, that utilizes the ideals espoused by Simón Bolívar, who helped lead Venezuela and other Latin American countries to independence from Spain, to exploit populist sentiments in support of local leaders. This type of propaganda has been particularly associated with Hugo Chávez's Bolivarian Revolution, which used emotional arguments to gain attention, exploit the fears of the population, create external enemies for scapegoat purposes, and produce nationalism within the population, causing feelings of betrayal for support of the opposition. The World Politics Review stated that as Chávez began "transforming Venezuela into a socialist state" that propaganda was "an important role in maintaining and mobilizing government supporters". The image of Chávez is seen on sides of buildings, on T-shirts, on ambulances, on official Petróleos de Venezuela billboards, and as action figures throughout Venezuela.
context_section_description: Enio Cardozo of the Central University of Venezuela states that the Venezuelan government uses the same propaganda tactics against the opposition that were developed by Joseph Goebbels for Nazi propaganda. Such tactics would include "simplifying the enemy" by using labels, with the Venezuelan government attempting to polarize the public into thinking that the opposition were "the wealthy" were part of an "oligarchy", blaming the opposition for any of Venezuela's woes. Another tactic would be using false stories in order to make large threats against the opposition.
  Hugo Chávez described "any opposition to his government as a 'Made in the USA' corrupt, terrorist, coup-mongering plot to topple his democratic government". The opposition was often linked to adversaries of the Venezuelan government and a "sovereignty card" was used linking foreign adversaries to the opposition. While covering opposition events, the state media would manipulate images to make gatherings look smaller.
  The Venezuelan government occasionally uses smear campaigns against the opposition, illegally phone tapping their conversations and playing them throughout state media. The Venezuelan government promotes the use of such recordings since they are "aimed mainly at discrediting opposition politicians", though recent phone tapped recordings used in state media are attributed to entities online instead of the Venezuelan government. One of Chávez's favorite state television shows, The Razorblade, was mainly used to attack the opposition with such tactics, using photographs and audio recording to embarrass their politicians. The source of this content was presumed to be from the country's intelligence agency, SEBIN.
caption: Political graffiti against Henrique Capriles from a Hugo Chávez speech saying "Ah, the stupid boy".
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