Published at: 29/04/2026 08:44 PM

(Cipriano Castro in the World Cartoon, 1980; Memories of Venezuela No. 6, November 2008 and The Butter Plate, No. 404 of December 26, 1908)

• Reviewing old newspapers, smelling of oblivion, and old publications, of which there is barely a memory left, we find that the embarrassing spectacle of María Corina Machado (MCM) and her “showman” on the stage of the Plaza de la Puerta del Sol in Madrid, is a shameful episode that had already happened before.
• The song “Out with the Mona!” has its roots in the dilapidated colonial framework that invented the odious concept of “race” as an ideology of discrimination based on skin pigmentation, ethnic inferiorization and social exclusion. Synonyms of a violent, decadent, parasitic and classist political elite.
• From the “lower castes” or “rooted” with Indians or blacks come mixed-race people such as Simon Bolivar, José Laurencio Silva, Simón Rodríguez, Manuel Carlos Piar, Leonardo Infante, Juan José Rondón, Pedro Camejo “Negro Primero”, Juana Ramírez “The Advancer”, Hugo Chávez and the thousands of anonymous soldiers who gave their lives to give us Independence in Carabobo. Not to forget that it was the Militias de Pardos (mulattos) who made possible the Proclamation of Independence on April 19, 1810.
• Without going that far, 128 years ago, Gral. Cipriano Castro was the victim of the same racial hatred that a week ago MCM and his “showman” platform exercised against the first Venezuelan woman to lead the country's destiny**, ** the fellow President (e) of the Republic Delcy Rodríguez; without realizing that the offensive and insulting species broadcast in his “show” refer to almost 30 millions of Venezuelans.
• In the fierce smear campaign waged for 6 years (1902-1908) against President General Cipriano Castro, local planfletarians such as Pedro María Morantes (“Pio Gil”) and the international yellow press appealed to the same pejorative adjectives, describing him as: “monkey, pygmy, mandril, dictator and macaque”.
• Something never seen in history, was the edition of a complete French magazine to defame and insult him. In fact, the famous publication “The Butter Plate (L'assiette au Beurre)”, in its 404 edition of December 26, 1908, unfolded all its pages against the Venezuelan president, treating him in the most disparaging forms, words and drawings.
• The unusual thing is to see how the international press, massively, displayed racial hatred in its cartoons both against General Castro in particular and against the Venezuelan people in general. This ridicule campaign portrayed Venezuelans in the most infamous terms that appeared published in 1980, thanks to the newspaper compilation by the professor of the University of New Mexico, William Sulivan, prefaced by Dr. Jesús Sanoja Hernández.
• Sanoja Hernández states, in reference to General Castro, that “anyone who does not understand, after this schematic presentation of annexationist realities and struggles for world supremacy, as Venezuela saw in the 20th century, helpless and without a way out, is because he carries within him an enormous burden of prejudice”.
• Anyone who does not understand today how the unilateral sanctions or coercive measures imposed against Venezuela suffocate the economy of millions of families, denying indispensable resources to save lives, improve hospitals and provide schools, is because they carry deep in their mental DNA an immense burden of racial hatred, caste revenge and a high overdose of personal ambition. As deployed in Madrid, MCM, whose political myopia, blindness to power at the cost of anything, impair the quality of life of more than 30 million Venezuelans, deteriorating, since their application, all public services and making it difficult to access essential goods for daily livelihood.
• Cipriano Castro, after the coup d'état of 1908 carried out by his compère J.V. Gómez, began a long and endless pilgrimage around the world, fleeing the relentless persecution of which he was subject, constantly changing names, passports and cities. On one occasion he was kidnapped by the customs authorities of Ellis Island, in New York, where he was confined for a month to a stinking cell of that migratory exile. There, he was mistreated by the authorities through endless interrogations full of harassment and humiliation.

Mazo News Team