Hugo Chavez is so detested by average Venezuelans that he’s reduced to passing out great big bottles of rum at his campaign rallies. Voters quaff these booze bottles full of liquor, pirate-style while they think it over. Evidently Chavez thinks this raises the odds of voters checking off his name on Venezuelan election day, Dec. 3.

Naturally, this has attracted street drunks to Chavez rallies and fostered a new social phenomenon – Dancing Drunks for Chavez.

Miguel has the must-be-seen-to-be-believed photos in this post here.

More seriously, one commentatator on Miguel’s site notes that weird dancing public drunkeness is often typical in a regime where really bad things have happened, like bank failures. A friend who went to Cuba told me that he saw the same phenomenon of public knee-walking drunkeness as a means of coping with the total hopelessness of the public situation.

Miguel’s commentator Roger writes:

I must admit that in the early 90’s when the banks were failing, I found that this was not only a great way to cope, but also a great way to bond with Venezuelans. Bear in mind that I had a US Passport and a return ticket to the States. Venezuelans have been watching every day since then mostly be a little bit worse than the last. … Trust me I know the feeling. We can be sure that the number of “Drunks against Chavez” are just as numerous and sometimes drink the problem away at the same bar as his supporters.
Roger ??????? 9/6/06; 10:11:45 PM #

It signals a sea change in Venezuela under Chavez – the tyranny is literally driving some people to drink. The results from Miguel’s photos speak for themselves.