Andes tensions spawn Chavez voodoo doll
Posted
Just add pins: The Hugo Chavez voodoo doll (Reuters: John Vizcaino)
Diplomatic tensions between Colombia and Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez have generated fierce rhetoric, political protests and even troop movements along the frontier between the Andean neighbors.
Now a Colombian designer has come up with an idea he hopes will create a humorous way to deal with local anger over the man many in his country consider a threat to national security - a fake Chavez voodoo doll complete with a set of needles.
An idea sure to enrage many Venezuelans who see Mr Chavez as a savior who has empowered his country's poor, the 'Chavez Personal Voodoo Doll' is a cushion with a printed likeness of the anti-US leader and is sold in two Bogota boutiques for $6.
"People ask if this is not an aggressive thing, but I think it is really the opposite," doll creator Nicolas Mendoza said.
"It's better for people to stab a pin into a cloth doll than do some real violence."
Political-themed dolls are not new to the Andes.
In Venezuela, uniformed figures of Mr Chavez as a soldier have been sold for years on the streets of Caracas and Bogota vendors sell talking figures of President Alvaro Uribe, who is hugely popular for cracking down on the FARC rebels.
Prone to speeches filled with verbal attacks against US President George W Bush, Mr Chavez says socialism is the way to counter Washington's free-market ideas while Mr Uribe has been the staunchest White House partner in South America.
The two Latin American leaders have been at odds for months.
Colombia accuses Mr Chavez of backing Marxist rebels who have fought a four-decade conflict.
After Colombian troops killed a top rebel in a camp in Ecuador, war almost broke out when Mr Chavez sent tanks to the Colombian border.
"In case of foreign invasion, use the needles to defend the fatherland," the doll's label says in a jab at the region's geopolitical tensions.
One Bogota designer store said that since it began selling the dolls two weeks ago, it has sold about one a day -- not nearly as popular as talking figures sold of Mr Uribe and Mr Chavez in their respective capitals.
- Reuters
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Comments (8)
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Ben:
18 Jun 2008 9:23:59am
I hear they also made a doll of Brendan Nelson, but Malcolm Turnbull bought them all, and a nail gun. Not sure what he was planning to do with them.
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Fronktor:
18 Jun 2008 9:27:42am
Well, I suppose this is better than suicide bombings.
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Spectre:
18 Jun 2008 9:29:08am
Heheheee.... wouldn't that be a top seller. Parlimentary Voodoo Dolls. Get your favourite politician and pin him to the wall!
I could think of a few I'd like to stick it too...
And thinking about it, I would love to see a lil Johnny Howard Voodoo doll. Wouldn't that just be the most comical one?
Think I am going to wee myself laughing at that image...Agree (0) Alert moderator
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Chappy:
18 Jun 2008 9:47:28am
ha ha, this article reminds me of the golf balls I bought in the late eighties that were emblemed with Paul Keatings face on them. With all the spa-ing in the Australian political scene this year we may see the return of the dart board, with certain political characters portrayed on them, just in time for xmas.
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voodoo girl:
18 Jun 2008 10:06:05am
i wonder whether the president bush doll is still available? I have been looking for years?
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JayR:
18 Jun 2008 10:56:32am
I have a personalised GWB dart board given to me by a work colleague. Great to unwind throwing a few darts at a pinhead!
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felix:
18 Jun 2008 10:41:08am
I'd like to see a Komrade Kevin action man/voodoo doll on the stores in time for Chirstmas. The one that tries to save the world but just isn't big enough to be taken seriously. Be a fair chance that Mr Sheen's lawyers would put a stop to it though.
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Chappy:
18 Jun 2008 11:40:51am
ha ha now there's a market felix. You could pull the chord/drawstring from his back and see his head SPIN SPIN SPIN all the while saying - "working famlies working families working families." Another winner might be his own brand of toilet paper embrazened with more of his metophorical rhetoric.
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