Two Venezuelans who emigrated to escape the country’s economic woes are drawing laughs with a mobile game mocking Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro for his decision to give a new home to a woman who threw a mango at him seeking attention for her plea to get housing.
The goal of Maduro Mango Attack is to accumulate points by throwing tropical fruit at the socialist leader as he scurries across the screen to a techno beat interspersed with calls by an opposition leader to unleash their fury.
Players are also rewarded for pelting Venezuelan National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello, seen strutting with a bag full of dollar bills, and for hitting former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez incarnated as a small bird in a red beret — an allusion to Maduro’s remarks on the campaign trail that Chavez had visited him in fluttering form.
Photo: AP
In the week since the game’s debut, more than 10,000 people have downloaded the free app, according to Google Play.
The game was inspired by an incident last month in which a woman hurled a mango at Maduro’s head as he drove a bus through a crowd of supporters.
Hours later on national TV, Maduro displayed the mango on which Marleny Olivo had written her telephone number before he granted her plea for a new home.
Shoes, pies and eggs remain the most popular objects to throw at scorned politicians the world over.
However, the projectiles being tossed at Maduro come entirely from supporters and the president initially welcomed the trend, saying on Tuesday last week: “It is the time of the mango.”
To the possible consternation of his bodyguards, Madur began encouraging supporters to hand over fruit with their requests for government help.
However, more recently he has tried to corral the practice.
“You have to be careful, comrade,” Maduro said at a May Day rally after dodging a weighted-down T-shirt. “Sometimes an expression of kindness can turn into something it is not intended to be.”
Fernando Malave, one of the game’s creators, said he does not want to encourage violence against the president, but rather is using humor to draw attention to Venezuela’s problems.
Malave said he and codeveloper Gabriel Diaz moved to Argentina seeking work last year, fed up with what they describe as Venezuela’s high crime and poor job prospects amid an economic crisis marked by soaring inflation and widespread shortages.
The troubles have eroded support for Maduro by nearly half since he was elected president in 2013, putting his backing at 28 percent in a survey last month by pollster Datanalisis.
“People are tired and everyone wants a change but don’t know what kind of change,” Malave said. “Hopefully humor, which has always united Venezuelans, can relieve some of the daily stress.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of