By JP Carroll
Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro said Saturday women should stop using hair dryers as to stymie the electricity shortages in a country with some of the world’s largest oil reserves.
“I think a woman looks better when she runs her fingers through her hair and lets it dry naturally,” according to the bus driver turned president. Maduro’s comments follow the recent announcement that public employees have Fridays off work so the government can save on electricity.
The Venezuelan president went on to recommend that blow drying your hair should be something done only for “special occasions.” This is just the latest move employed by the Socialist government to deal with electricity shortages — which even led to shopping malls closing for all of February.
The energy crisis Venezuela is dealing with is just the latest symptom of a long-brewing political crisis dating back to the country’s December 2015 elections. In December, for the first time since the Socialists came to power in 1999, the conservatives won the country’s Congressional elections.
Maduro has been dealing with a divided government, and is trying to shut down Congress’ authority. The conservative opposition controlled National Assembly, the equivalent of America’s Congress, passed a law in March to get its political prisoners out of jail. U.S.-educated opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez, has been behind bars since February 2014.
