As Chavez and Maduro images disappear, is Venezuela entering a new chapter?

Art as propagandaChavez’s eyes still gaze from walls across Caracas. So too do the eyes of other figures, like Maduro and independence leader Simon Bolivar. Some images are faded. Others are accompanied by slogans like "To doubt is treason".Forastero has worked on government projects, including under Rodriguez. But he is critical of some of the newer images. He remembers a time when he painted murals of Chavez playing with children or riding a bicycle, not slogans.“When Chavez was alive, people painted Chavez because we loved him very much. It’s as simple as that,” he said.In recent decades, he argues that Venezuela's public art has fallen increasingly under government control, with murals commissioned to carry explicitly political messages.“Muralism is a story told on a wall," Forastero said. "What we really see on the walls now are propaganda posters. I’m a chavista, and I’m disgusted by it."Still, the removal of the artwork is another form of propaganda, in Forastero's eyes. He believes the Rodriguez government is seeking to project a more "neutral" appearance to better appeal to the US.He also accuses Rodriguez of abandoning ideals key to the chavismo movement: namely, anti-imp...