Opposition figures condemn Venezuelan president for visiting famed Nusr-Et steakhouse in Istanbul on way back from China

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A viral video showing the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, feasting on a steak prepared by a celebrity chef at a time many in his crisis-racked nation are going hungry has provoked fury from opponents of the embattled socialist leader.

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Maduro visited the famed Nusr-Et steakhouse in Istanbul when he stopped over briefly in Turkey on the way home from a trip to China to raise investment.

In the videos, he can be seen puffing on a cigar from a personalized box while he and the first lady, Cilia Flores, watch the owner, Nusret Gökçe, in dark aviator glasses and a tight black T-shirt, cut into a steak in flamboyant fashion.

Gökçe, a world renowned restaurateur better known by his nickname “Salt Bae”, posted the videos on his Instagram account, which has 16 million followers. His other videos show him serving customers such as Diego Maradona and posing as Don Corleone from the Godfather movies.

Gökçe later deleted the images and a thank you post to Maduro.

But by that time the videos had already generated a maelstrom of criticism for Maduro, who was forced to put a lighter spin on the dining experience. Appearing on television on Monday night, Maduro called the meal a “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” and thanked Gökçe for his hospitality, saying he hoped to see him soon in Caracas.

Quick guide Why is Venezuela in crisis? Show Hide Under the late Hugo Chávez, who ushered in Venezuela’s socialist revolution in 1999, a new constitution and numerous elections placed nearly all government institutions under the control of the ruling Socialist party. This concentration of power was aided by a feuding opposition which carried out ineffectual campaigns and electoral boycotts. After Chávez died of cancer in 2013, he was succeeded by Nicolás Maduro who is even less tolerant of dissent. Growing political authoritarianism has coincided with greater state dominance over the economy. But expropriations, price controls and mismanagement have led to a 40% contraction of the economy in the past five years. Oil accounts for 96% of Venezuela’s export income but many foreign companies have been driven out and production has dropped to a 30-year low. The resulting fiscal crisis has prompted the government to print more money, which has led to hyperinflation and a collapse of the currency. It also means that the government can’t import enough food and medicine to meet demand. Maduro has rejected economic reforms out of loyalty to socialism and because many government officials are allegedly getting rich off the economic distortions – through exchange rate scams and by selling scarce food on the black market.



Opponents were less forgiving.

“While Venezuelans suffer and die of hunger, Nicolás Maduro and Cilia are enjoying themselves at one of the most expensive restaurants in the world,” said Julio Borges, the exiled former president of the opposition-controlled national assembly.

A deep economic crisis marked by hyperinflation and widespread food shortages has destroyed Venezuelans’ earning power, with many surviving on less than $1 a day. Nearly nine in 10 households are living in poverty, according to a 2017 survey by three leading universities.

A study conducted by a group of Venezuela’s top universities found 87% of the population was living in poverty in 2017 and 60% of people had lost an average of 11kg (24lb) due to a diet that was lacking in protein, one of the primary nutrients contained in meat.

“Eating meat and smoking cigars … with the dollars that he refuses to use to buy medicines and food: WORKER PRESIDENT,” said former government loyalist Nicmer Evans, now a leader of the opposition Frente Amplio.

A main course in Gökçe’s restaurant costs between $70 and $250 – equivalent to between two and eight months salary in Venezuela on the minimum wage.

The Florida Republican senator Marco Rubio, a fierce critic of Maduro, piled on, noting that Gökçe also has a restaurant in Miami, home to the largest population of Venezuelan immigrants, most of them hostile to Maduro.

“I don’t know who this weirdo #Saltbae is, but the guy he is so proud to host is not the President of Venezuela. He is actually the overweight dictator of a nation where 30% of the people eat only once a day & infants are suffering from malnutrition,” Rubio said on Twitter.

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Maduro has drawn closer to the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as the two have become political pariahs in Washington and fallen under US sanctions.

In July, during a previous visit to Istanbul, he dressed up as an Ottoman horseman while visiting the set of a popular Turkish TV series, Resurrection: Ertugrul, which the Venezuelan leader said he watches back home.

“Chavismo is asking China to borrow money because you can’t pay your debts and then go to luxury restaurants,” the social media expert Luis Carlos Díaz wrote on Twitter in a broadside at Maduro’s leftwing populist politics adopted from late predecessor Hugo Chávez.

This report includes material from the Associated Press and AFP