Daily Times

Tweeted support for Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s re-election? There could be a reward of 350,000 bolivars for you.

Scanned a few hundred state-issued “fatherland cards” to see if their holders voted? A 300,000 bolivar reward could be yours – just $0.35 but the equivalent of a week’s salary for most Venezuelans.

In a practice decried by Maduro opponents as buying support, the socialist government is giving cash prizes to Venezuelans who helped in Maduro’s re-election on Sunday, according to interviews with four recipients and messages seen by Reuters.

Scores of Venezuelan voters said on social media and in interviews that they were waiting for the “prize” that had been promised by Maduro before the election to those who voted and then scanned their fatherland card, which grants access to certain welfare programs.

In a campaign speech on May 15, Maduro said all fatherland card holders who voted would receive a “fatherland prize, which is legal and constitutional.”

Five days on, the hashtag “WithoutAPrize” has started circulating on social media. In Caracas’s poor neighborhoods, residents spread rumors about friends and relatives they heard had received up to 10 million bolivars for voting, while others said it was untrue.

“Be careful about letting down the revolution’s voters,” said Freddie Velazquez, 54, directing the comment to Maduro, as he carted scarce gas canisters down a street in the hillside slum of El Valle.

Published in Daily Times, May 26^th 2018.