BOGOTA - Diplomatic tensions between Colombia and Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez have generated fierce rhetoric, political protests and even troop movements along the frontier between the Andean neighbours.
Now a Colombian designer has come up with an idea he hopes will create a humorous way to deal with
local anger over the man many in his country consider a threat to national security: a fake Chavez Voodoo doll complete with a set of needles.
An idea sure to enrage many Venezuelans who see Chavez as a saviour who has empowered his country's poor, the "Chavez Personal Voodoo Doll" is a cushion with a printed likeness of the anti-US leader and is sold in two Bogota boutiques for US$6 ($8.05).
"People ask if this is not an aggressive thing, but I think it is really the opposite," said the doll's creator, Nicolas Mendoza. "It's better for people to stab a pin into a cloth doll than do some real violence."
Political-themed dolls are not new to the Andes. In Venezuela, uniformed figures of former soldier Chavez have been sold for years on the streets of Caracas and Bogota vendors sell talking figures of President Alvaro Uribe, who is hugely popular for cracking down on the FARC rebels.
Prone to speeches filled with verbal attacks against US President George W. Bush, Chavez says socialism is the way to counter Washington's free-market ideas while Uribe has been the staunchest White House partner in South America.
The two Latin American leaders have been at odds for months. Colombia accuses Chavez of backing Marxist rebels who have fought a four-decade conflict. After Colombian troops killed a top rebel in a camp in Ecuador, war almost broke out when Chavez sent tanks to the Colombian border.
"In case of foreign invasion, use the needles to defend the fatherland," the doll's label says in a jab at the region's geopolitical tensions.
One Bogota designer store said that since it began selling the dolls two weeks ago, it has sold about one a day - not nearly as popular as talking figures sold of Uribe and Chavez in their respective capitals.
- REUTERS
