Supporters of Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro shout slogans during a campaign rally in Caracas, Venezuela May 16, 2018. Picture taken May 16, 2018. REUTERS/Carlos Garcia Rawlins
Reuters: 'Loyal to my revolution': Despite Venezuela woes, Maduro has diehard fans
CARACAS (Reuters) - Helen Blandin, a 44-year-old single mother, has seen her life crumble in tandem with Venezuela’s devastated economy.
The state employee earns the minimum wage, equivalent to around $2 a month due to a collapsing local currency. She can no longer eat meat regularly and has struggled to afford diapers and milk for her baby son.
Despite all that, Blandin will cast her vote on Sunday for leftist leader Nicolas Maduro, who she adoringly proclaimed “My president!” during a recent pro-government rally in her poor hillside neighborhood of Petare overlooking eastern Caracas.
Blandin is part of an estimated one-fifth of Venezuela’s population that political analysts and polls have identified as the bedrock of support for the “Chavismo” movement founded by late Socialist leader Hugo Chavez.
Her pain and devotion to the ruling party appear contradictory.
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Update: Maduro’s backers press socialism amid Venezuela’s nightmare (AP)
WNU Editor: This reminds me of the Soviet Union about a year or two before it broke apart. Even with all the misery and the collapse of government services/the collapse of the economy/inflation-depression/massive unemployment/and failing to pay those who work or pensions .... there was a huge segment of the population that still believed in Communism, the Communist Party, and the Soviet Union. And who they blamed for their misery and poverty was always the same .... the West, dissidents, opposition groups, etc.. .... never on themselves or on the political system that they supported. Today .... those same people have done a 180 (at least among my friends and family members). They are the biggest supporters of the market economy, less government involvement, and the anti-Communist to the core.
