A normal country?
CARACAS, Venezuela — A normal country?
At first glance, the graffiti reading „Un pais normal?“ seems ambiguous in Venezuela’s frayed capital, where the government brandishes slogans like clenched fists and the opposition lobs insults at President Nicolás Maduro. Actually, the message on a Caracas wall is a tart comment in a place where talk of what is normal, or should be normal, has become common and touches nerves.
Normalcy elsewhere in the world doesn’t fit Venezuela, where extremes are the norm.
Two men say they are president. The worst nationwide blackouts last month played havoc with millions of people. Hyperinflation has slashed many monthly salaries to the equivalent of a few dollars. One-tenth of the population — over 3 million and growing — has fled, causing Latin America’s biggest migration crisis.
Don’t think of Venezuela’s chaos as the new normal, warns opposition leader Juan Guaidó.
„There can’t be normality when we Venezuelans can’t even communicate with our family members and some have to look for water in the Guaire (river) to slake the thirst of their children,“ Guaidó tweeted during electricity outages in March.
Guaidó’s supporters worry that anger over the country’s escalating problems will fade and therefore extend the rule of Maduro, whose re-election last year was denounced as illegitimate by Guaidó as well as the United States and about 50 other nations.
„It’s not normal,“ read a cardboard poster at an opposition rally in Caracas this month.
