International14 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2016

President dances salsa while Venezuela churns CARACAS: Venezuelans are running short of food, medi- cine and patience, but fear not: President Nicolas Maduro is here to cheer them up-by dancing salsa. Grinning under his black mustache, the burly, tower- ing socialist swivels his hips and twirls his wife Cilia Flores in front of the cameras. “People say I’m crazy for dancing salsa,” he said on one recent broadcast. “Hands up every- body who dances salsa! Admit it, we’re all crazy!” With hunger and violent crime gripping the country and the opposition calling for his head, this is Maduro’s new strat- egy for winning hearts and minds. That is an uphill battle; most Venezuelans would like him to leave power. Wednesday was a case in point as Maduro celebrated his 54th birthday with a live performance by old-school salsa greats El Gran Combo de .”What a sur- prise!” the president exclaimed before taking the first lady for a spin, dancing to the classic “Me libere.”

‘Ridiculous’ A former bus driver, Maduro has often sung and danced at campaign rallies. But his continued capering amid the crisis, and his recent launch of a dedicated salsa radio show, seem like bad taste to some weary citizens. “He is ridiculous. It’s offensive. He is laughing at the peo- ple,” said Bermudez, 62, coming out of a bank in PANAMA CITY: Workers cut a tree that fell and killed a boy outside a school on Tuesday. —AP Caracas after collecting his pension. “Instead of spending money on television programs, he should be bringing us medicine.” Spoof photo “memes” of Maduro online have Hurricane Otto nears the coasts shown him dancing in various inappropriate settings: at the scene of a crime or in a long queue for food. But truck driver Orlando Zacarias, 49, said he saw Maduro’s dancing of Nicaragua and Costa Rica as a necessary means of continuing the “socialist revolu- tion.” “Little by little, he is reaching out to each and every Unusually strong late-season storm Venezuelan to transmit his message,” Zacarias said. MANAGUA, Nicaragua: Hurricane Otto Costa Rica since record-keeping began. were pulled from the mud dead. In the Salsa time strengthened to a Category 2 hurricane Nicaragua also closed schools and was capital, a child was killed when a tree fell Maduro launched his radio show “Salsa Hour” late last as it churned toward the sparsely-popu- evacuating more than 10,000 people on a car outside a school. month on the same day that opposition lawmakers called lated coast border of from communities in the storm’s path. Panamanian authorities canceled for a political trial against him. They say mismanagement Nicaragua and Costa Rica early yester- Heavy rains were expected to affect the school and began to release water from and corruption in his government have plunged the day as an unusually strong late-season entire country on Thursday and Friday, the locks and lakes feeding the Panama country into crisis. The opposition won control of the leg- storm. Heavy rains from the storm were raising the possibility of flooding and Canal. Costa Rican President Luis islature in elections a year ago. Now Maduro is using sal- blamed for three deaths in Panama. landslides in the interior. Guillermo Solis said Otto could damage sa’s popular beats to reach out to ordinary Venezuelans Otto was forecast to make landfall The US National Hurricane Center the country’s important coffee and agri- who deserted him in that vote, says social psychologist Thursday in Nicaragua, just north of the said the storm had regained hurricane culture sectors. Ricardo Sucre. “He wants to show himself to be confident Costa Rican border. Officials in Costa strength late Wednesday night after Nicaragua also feared damage for and relaxed, not as though his government is about to Rica ordered the evacuation of 4,000 fluctuating between tropical storm and impoverished farmers and to coffee fall.” Maduro himself brands the crisis a US-backed capi- people from its Caribbean coast and hurricane status earlier this week. By crops that are almost ready for harvest. talist conspiracy. He casts his programs as a counter- called off school nationwide for the rest Thursday morning, Otto’s maximum sus- Otto “could seriously jeopardize food weight to media that he says are out to discredit him. of the week. Heavy rain was already tained winds had increased to near 105 security for small-holder farmers who causing flooding in some areas and the mph (165 kph) with additional strength- rely on maize, beans, cocoa, honey, cof- Dancing through scandal The last edition of his television program “In Touch president announced that public ening possible before landfall. fee and livestock for their livelihoods,” With Maduro” lasted four hours and featured a live salsa employees would not have to work The storm caused heavy rains in said Jennifer Zapata, a regional director band. With his long broadcasts, Maduro is carrying on a Thursday or Friday. Panama as it moved roughly parallel to for Heifer International, a US-based anti- tradition of his late mentor and predecessor Hugo that nation’s northern coast. poverty group. Thursday morning, Otto Chavez. Chavez’s weekly television show “Alo Presidente” Landfall in Costa Rica Jose Donderis, Panama’s civil defense was moving west near 8 mph (13 kph) was an outspoken and unpredictable spectacle. Maduro The country’s National director, said a landslide just west of and was centered about 70 miles (110 lacks Chavez’s charisma, Sucre says, but all the same Meteorological Institute noted that a Panama City early Tuesday trapped nine kilometers) north of Limon, Costa Rica, “Chavez chose him as his successor because he could get hurricane had never made landfall in people. Seven were rescued but two the hurricane center said. —AP through difficult times without looking nervous.” — AFP Green Party raises $2.5 million for presidential election recount in Wisconsin MILWAUKEE: Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein yes- the election, many polls had Clinton defeating Trump. terday reached her goal to raise $2.5 million to request a Although Clinton won the popular vote, Trump is well ahead recount in Wisconsin, one of three states where she plans to in Electoral College votes, the determining tally in winning the seek an audit of US presidential election results, her campaign presidency in the United States. Stein won a little more than 1 said. Stein will ask Wisconsin to verify vote totals tallied by elec- percent of the popular vote. “Our effort to recount votes in tronic machines that her campaign called “highly vulnerable to those states is not intended to help Hillary Clinton,” the Stein hacking and malicious reprogramming” in a statement on its campaign said. website. She is also trying to raise an additional $2 million to Election experts are calling for Clinton to seek a manual request recounts in Michigan and Pennsylvania, where dead- review of paper ballots and voting equipment in the three lines are next week to file the required paperwork. states, University of Michigan computer science professor J. Election experts have identified Wisconsin, Michigan and Alex Halderman wrote in an essay. Such an examination would Pennsylvania as states where “statistical anomalies” occurred, “help allay doubt and give voters justified confidence that the CARACAS: Handout picture released by the presiden- according to the Stein campaign. “We deserve elections we results are accurate,” Halderman wrote on Medium.com, a site tial press office depicting Venezuelan President can trust,” the campaign said. where users can self-publish articles and essays. The most likely Nicolas Maduro (L) during his radio broadcast “La Republican Donald Trump beat Democrat Hillary Clinton by explanation for the polls wrongly predicting a Clinton win was Hora de la salsa” (Salsa Time) in Caracas, on slight margins in the three battleground states on his way to that they were “systematically wrong” rather than that the November 22, 2016.—AFP an upset in the presidential election on Nov. 8. Leading up to election being hacked, he wrote. —Reuters