Super Mustache and the Spin: How Venezuela’s State Media Mixes Satire, Militarism and Bluster Amid US Pressure

Venezuela’s state-run media has leaned on satire, spectacle and showy military displays as tensions with the United States have increased. The campaign ranges from a cartoon superhero called Super Mustache to marathon television broadcasts from regime loyalists — a mix designed to reassure supporters, warn adversaries and avoid triggering mass panic.

Super Mustache, a comic-book alter ego of President Nicolás Maduro that has appeared on state television since 2021, symbolizes the softer, theatrical side of the effort. In a September installment aired after US forces began targeting suspected drug-running boats near Venezuelan waters, the character swapped his cape for a military tunic, brandished a sheathed sword and declared that Venezuela did not have a “warmongering culture.” The sequence fused bravado with a tongue-in-cheek tone intended to comfort domestic audiences while signaling resolve to foreign observers.

At the same time, official messaging has been uneven. As reports of US warships operating in the Caribbean and talk of possible intervention circulated, the government alternated between calling on citizens to prepare and insisting the country remained calm and secure. That dissonance was visible on the streets of Caracas, where recent reporting found no large-scale mobilization posters, banners or murals in many neighborhoods that historically supported the regime.

President Maduro has increased his public appearances and speeches, often accompanied by a substantial security detail, according to Venezuelan researcher and journalist Andrés Cañizález. Yet rather than adopting an overtly bellicose posture, he has at times cast himself as a peacemaker — even performing John Lennon’s “Imagine” at a public event and urging direct talks with U.S. authorities.

Counterbalancing Maduro’s conciliatory tone is the combative media persona of Diosdado Cabello, a powerful regime figure who hosts the long-running state program Con el Mazo Dando ("Hitting it with a Club"). Episodes can run for hours and mix attacks on opponents with jokes and government talking points. Cabello routinely rejects U.S. explanations for operations in the Caribbean — insisting that actions attributed to drug interdiction are instead aimed at seizing control of Venezuela’s resources.

Political scientist Javier Corrales, who studies Venezuelan politics, characterizes Cabello as part of the regime’s hard line: “He’s a bully,” Corrales says, noting the value of a showman who both praises leadership and relentlessly vilifies the opposition.

The military has contributed its own visual messaging on social platforms: short, dramatic videos of troops conducting drills, anti-tank fortifications around Caracas and militia members posing with weapons. These clips reinforce a narrative of preparedness even as official spokespeople seek to avoid creating widespread alarm.

Both Maduro and Cabello have directed much of their rhetorical ire not at U.S. leadership broadly but at Senator Marco Rubio, whom the regime portrays as an influential antagonist pushing Washington toward confrontation. Analysts say personalizing an external enemy like Rubio helps rally the Chavista base by simplifying a complex international dynamic into a familiar political foe.

“Presenting a personalized external enemy seeks to sow divisions in U.S. domestic politics and unite the Chavista base,” says Andrés Cañizález.

The central contradiction for Venezuela’s authorities is this: how to mobilize supporters and project strength without provoking panic at home or triggering a real military clash. The blend of satire, theatrical posturing and carefully staged military displays underscores a propaganda strategy centered on controlled escalation — raising the question of whether symbolic figures like Super Mustache will remain theatrical or be used to justify harder measures if tensions continue to rise.