Nicolas Maduro announces early Christmas season in Venezuela

President Nicolas Maduro announced the Christmas season would come early in Venezuela and holiday bonuses would be issued in November.

Nicolas Maduro said state workers will receive the first two-thirds of their Christmas bonuses and pensions on November 10-11 instead of December this year in what the president said was an effort to lift people’s spirits, NPR reported last week.

“We made Christmas earlier because happiness and The Nativity and waiting for the arrival of the baby Jesus, it is the best medicine,” Nicolas Maduro said at the Socialist Christmas Fair in Caracas.

During his visit to the so-called Socialist Christmas Fair 2013, organized by the government in a central area of Caracas, Nicolas Maduro exchanged a few words with actors posing as the Three Kings, sang traditional Venezuelan Christmas songs and witnessed the sale of typical holiday food and items.

Last weekend Nicolas Maduro lit the Nativity lights at the Presidential Palace of Miraflores and said that the last two months of the year should be premonitory of what 2014 will be.

“Merry Christmas 2013, Christmas early, early victory, early happiness for the whole family,” Nicolas Maduro said.

“We wanted to declare the arrival of Christmas because we want happiness for everyone,” he added.

Political experts, though, said the move may be an effort by Nicolas Maduro to get votes for municipal elections on December 8, NPR reported.

Nicolas Maduro won by a slim margin in the spring, and Venezuela’s economy has been suffering, with 45% inflation and a shortage of toys in retail stores for the holiday season.

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