CARACAS, VENEZUELA -- The world's attention on Venezuela has been focused in the last weeks on the fallout from a highly contested presidential election that both the ruling party and its opponents claim to have won, the ensuing persecution of critics and the arrest warrant against the former opposition presidential candidate.
But as political tensions escalate, President Nicolas Maduro decided there was a more important matter to discuss: Christmas and the need to kick off the jolly season a tad early this year. In October, to be precise.
"It's September, and it already smells like Christmas," Maduro said Monday night during his weekly television show. "That's why this year, as a way of paying tribute to you all, and in gratitude to you all, I'm going to decree an early Christmas for Oct. 1."
But not everyone seems eager to start singing Christmas carols.
"Christmas is supposed to be a time of joy, family reunions, parties, presents," Jose Ernesto Ruiz, a 57-year-old office worker, said Tuesday in Caracas, the capital. "(But) without money and with this political crisis, who can believe that there will be an early Christmas?"
This is not the first time that Maduro, in power since 2013, has declared the early arrival of Christmas. He did so during the COVID-19 pandemic, but never this early. Also, this year the political mood is particularly tense, even if Maduro said the season will come "with peace, happiness and security."
Ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared Maduro the winner of the July 28 election without showing any detailed results to back up their claim as they did in previous presidential elections.
But the lack of transparency has drawn international condemnation against Maduro and his allies, while the main opposition faction has presented electronic copies of its own electoral tallies showing that its candidate, Edmundo Gonzalez got the most votes.
Just hours before Maduro's holiday announcement, a Venezuelan judge issued an arrest warrant for Gonzalez, a former diplomat, accusing him of various crimes including conspiracy, falsifying documents and usurpation of powers.
Protests against Maduro's proclamation erupted after the election, and the government responded by arresting several people. More than 2,000 people -- including journalists, politicians and aid workers -- have been arrested since then.
"We are all worried about how we are going to put food on the table, how we are going to pay for the bus, send the children to school and buy medicine when we need it," said Ines Quevedo, a 39-year-old secretary and mother of two children.
"I don't think they will improve our salaries or pay us the 'aguinaldo'," she added, referring to the Christmas bonuses that workers usually receive at the end of the year.
The minimum wage has not changed since 2022: 130 bolivars per month, or about US$3.55. Workers also earn a monthly food assistance bonus of about US$40, and those who have signed up for a system of government benefits get an additional US$90.
"We'll see what this Christmas is all about," Quevedo said.
