Things may be hitting the bottom of the outhouse in the leftist enclave of Venezuela with the coming “shit march.”
According to a Reuters report, Venezuelan protesters are preparing to unleash their secret weapon on police and security forces Wednesday: the “Poopootov cocktail.” It may look like the traditional Molotov variety, but this bottle is filled with human and animal excrement.
“They have gas; we have excrement,” boasts an advertisement for the “shit march” on social media.
In Venezuela, inflation is going the way of Weimar Germany, it’s hard to find aspirin and there’s little to eat. For the past month, hundreds of thousands of angry, hungry and broke demonstrators have been filling the streets to demand the end of the regime of President Nicolas Maduro.
But plans to throw human and animal waste at the cops may be taking it a bit too far — even for some who sympathize with the opposition. They point out that with the dearth of medicine — and even basic cleaning supplies like soap — the excrement could merely add crap to the fire and make people sicker.
“The kids go out with just stones. That’s their weapon. Now they have another weapon: excrement,” a 51-year-old dentist told Reuters as she was putting together a small arsenal of feces-laden containers for protesters to use.
“One of my patients is collecting excrement from her child,” said the woman, who asked for anonymity.
Protesters seeking directions on how to make a Poopootov cocktail can discover the details on Facebook groups. Some, not wanting to hurt the security forces, just make them heave, are opting for plastic, not glass, receptacles.
Even so, some government sympathizers, like television star Mario Silva, are saying it’s “not only an act of desperation, it’s madness.”
Others say the tactic might be counterproductive in pulling some of the moderate members of the government away from the despotic president.
Opposition politician Rafael Guzman was philosophical. “They use their weapons against us, so people are using what they have,” said lawmaker Rafael Guzman.