Venezuelan dictator eats empanada on live TV while country starves
Moments after finishing a speech during a live television address, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro pulled out an empanada from his desk and took a big ol' bite:
Maduro's snack gives new meaning to the "Maduro diet," a term that some Venezuelans use to refer to weight loss incurred by starvation and the country's food shortages. The dictator was reveling in applause during a live speech when the stealth snacking occurred, but he is deeply unpopular in Venezuela.
Moreover, this isn't the first time he's been caught in a food related scandal: An Associated Press report last December detailed how Venezuela's military — to which Maduro gave control over the country's food supply — makes money trafficking food while the rest of the country starves. In August, Reuters reported that Venezuelan police believe zoo animals are being stolen in order to be eaten.
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Kelly O'Meara Morales is a staff writer at The Week. He graduated from Sarah Lawrence College and studied Middle Eastern history and nonfiction writing amongst other esoteric subjects. When not compulsively checking Twitter, he writes and records music, subsists on tacos, and watches basketball.
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