Venezuela’s socialist regime announced the debut on Thursday of a 330-Venezuelan-bolivar ($13.50) “Good Shepherd” bonus through its Chinese social credit system-inspired Fatherland platform to members of the Evangelical Christian community in the country.
“An embrace full of affection for those who daily promote the values of our Redeemer Christ, turning prayer into daily action,” the Maduro regime declared in the announcement of the money stipend, released through the Somos Venezuela (“We are Venezuela”) Movement, an ancillary political party of the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).
🚨 #ÚLTIMAHORA || Inicia la entrega del Bono El Buen Pastor enviado por nuestro Pdte. @NicolasMaduro a través del Sistema @CarnetDLaPatria.
✅ El Bono es para la comunidad cristiana.@MSVEnLinea #02Mar #ProducirEsIndependencia pic.twitter.com/40R7LpllZK
— Somos Venezuela | MSVEnLinea (@MSVEnLinea) March 2, 2023
The We Are Venezuela movement emphasized that the $13 stipend will only be given to citizens who are part of the Evangelical Christian community and are registered in the Fatherland system, a platform heavily inspired by the Chinese social credit system and built with the aid of the communist government of China and the Chinese telecom company ZTE.
The Fatherland system contains a significant amount of every registered Venezuelan’s information and that of their respective families, including work information, health conditions, food and other benefit handouts, and even Chinese coronavirus vaccination status. The Fatherland platform is also used to ration and manage monthly subsidized fuel allotments to qualifying citizens.
The $13 “Good Shepherd” bonus stands apart from other Fatherland System stipends as it is the only one of its kind specifically distributed to a religious group in Venezuela. The amount is considerably higher than the other socialist stipends that range between $2.95 and $8.86.
With 81.5 percent of Venezuela’s population living in poverty and the nation’s current monthly minimum wage being worth 130 Venezuelan Bolivars ($5.34), most recipients of the stipends have to rely on the aid of the socialist platform’s money handouts — although none of the stipends represent a meaningful amount that can help a Venezuelan family stay afloat.
According to data published by the Center for Documentation and Social Analysis of the Venezuelan Federation of Teachers (CENDAS-FVM), a Venezuelan family of five required $486.87 a month to cover its basic food requirements by February 2023.
By 2020, it was estimated that 71 percent of Venezuela’s population is Catholic and 13 percent are Evangelical Christians. The Venezuelan socialist regime has maintained a longstanding animosity towards the Venezuelan Catholic Church that goes all the way back to the days of Hugo Chávez.
Socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro accused Catholic bishops of being “devils in cassocks” in 2018. In January, Socialist party strongman and alleged drug lord Diosdado Cabello and the regime’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez, attacked the Catholic Church for criticizing the regime amidst the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Venezuela.
In contrast, Nicolás Maduro and the socialist regime have been attempting to cultivate a community of socialist sympathizers under the Evangelical banner — declaring the Evangelical church in the country to be “the true church of God” and designating his son, Nicolás Maduro Guerra, as Vice President of Religious Affairs of the PSUV.
“You are the true church of God, the one that is in the street, the one that is with the people,” the elder Maduro said at an official event in January.
In recent months, Maduro has provided Evangelical Christians with specific programs and plans to renew and renovate their churches, as well as monetary stipends. Venezuela’s socialist regime has never been shy to weaponize Christian faith for their goals, going as far as to hijack Catholic faith and rewrite the Lord’s Prayer to worship Hugo Chávez, who is posthumously referred to as the “Supreme and Eternal Commander of the Revolution.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
