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Rayma Suprani is a
Venezuela Venezuela (; ), officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela ( es, link=no, República Bolivariana de Venezuela), is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many islands and islets in ...
n cartoonist. In 2014 she was dismissed by the newspaper '' El Universal'' for drawing a cartoon criticizing the late president
Hugo Chávez Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías (; 28 July 1954 – 5 March 2013) was a Venezuelan politician who was president of Venezuela from 1999 until his death in 2013, except for a brief period in 2002. Chávez was also leader of the Fifth Repub ...
. While Chávez loyalists have had harsh words for her criticism of the regime, others have praised her for her “distinctive powers of observation” and “fine intelligence.” The critic Alfonso Molina praised her work writing “the work of Rayma Suprani in ''El Universal'' unites intelligence, sensitivity and talent to express our life as a country through very sharp vignettes that are not intended to make us laugh but to make us think. Journalist and cartoonist, she manages to communicate her ideas in a very personal way, but always with a collective sense.”


Early life and education

Suprani began painting as a teenager and trained for several years in the workshop of Pedro Centeno Vallenilla. When she took up cartooning, she gave up painting for a long time. She graduated from the
Central University of Venezuela The Central University of Venezuela ( Spanish: ''Universidad Central de Venezuela''; UCV) is a public university of Venezuela located in Caracas. It is widely held to be the highest ranking institution in the country, and it also ranks 18th in ...
.


Career

At a very early age, she began to work for the journal ''Economics Today''. After working at ''El Diario de Caracas'', she became the principal cartoonist at ''El Universal''. Suprani was ''El Universals chief cartoonist for 19 years.


Art exhibition

In 2012, having returned to large-format work, Suprani held her first solo exhibition, “Frente al espejo” (Facing the Mirror), at the Galería D’Museo del Centro de Arte Los Galpones de Los Dos Caminos. A writer for ''El Universal'' noted that Suprani's canvases displayed “the same critical spirit that has characterized her drawings and cartoons from the beginning. Scathing, sometimes. Ironic, sometimes. Corrosive, almost always.” “It is another Rayma Suprani,” wrote Alfonso Molina about the exhibition. The paintings, he maintained, represented “a demonstration of strength and courage that excited me, showed me another side of the same creator.”


Other activities

Suprani has also drawn magazine covers, and the best of her cartoons have been collected in books.


Dismissal

According to ''the Guardian'', her last cartoon, published in ''El Universal'' on September 17, 2014, “showed a normal-looking electrocardiogram under the heading 'Health', and below it the late former president Hugo Chávez's signature merging with a flatlining heartbeat under the words 'Health in Venezuela'.” The cartoon, wrote ''the Guardian'', “combined two nationally sensitive subjects: the legacy of Chávez, and the socialist government's management of the healthcare system.” ''The Guardian'' noted that medical personnel had “long claimed the economic chaos engulfing the country has led to chronic shortages of drugs and medical supplies,” and further pointed out that since Chávez's death the previous year, “his signature, always printed in red, has become a symbol of loyalty to the leader....It has been stamped across buildings and can often be seen tattooed on the arms of his supporters.” Only hours after the publication of the cartoon, Suprani was fired. “My immediate boss called me and told me he didn't like my caricature and I was out,” she said. “We've become a country where if you say things, have your own criteria and try to provoke reflection, it's not well viewed.” ''The Guardian'' stated that ''El Universal'' had recently been sold to “a little-known Spanish company called Epalistica, which employees at the newspaper allege is a front for a pro-government group of investors,” and that since the sale, the paper had shifted from an anti-government stance to a more government-friendly stance, resulting in the dismissal or resignation of several columnists. The newspaper ''El Tiempo'' also stated that since its change of ownership, ''El Universal'' had become more pro-government. “The government has gone and bought the news media that it can't silence,” Suprani said in an interview on ''Unionradio'', noting the government's previous acquisition of ''Globovisión'' and of the newspapers that had formerly belonged to
Cadena Capriles Cadena Capriles is a Venezuelan media company that owns the newspapers ''Últimas Noticias'' and '' El Mundo''. ''Últimas Noticias'' is the highest selling daily newspaper in Venezuela. History It was founded by Miguel Ángel Capriles Ayala in ...
. After the news of her dismissal was reported,
Henrique Capriles Henrique Capriles Radonski (; born 11 July 1972) is a Venezuelan politician and lawyer, who served as the 36th Governor of Miranda from 2008 to 2017. Born in Caracas, he received a degree in law from the Universidad Católica Andrés Bello, ...
and other opposition figures responded to Suprani's dismissal by tweeting their respect for her. Suprani herself wrote on Twitter that “we will carry on through other, smaller avenues but with endless creativity.” Suprani was scheduled to speak at the
Oslo Freedom Forum Oslo Freedom Forum (OFF) is a series of global conferences run by the New York-based non-profit Human Rights Foundation under the slogan "Challenging Power". OFF was founded in 2009 as a one-time event and has taken place annually ever since. On ...
in May 2015.


Personal life

Suprani has three dogs, Lucy, Blue and Churchill, and a cat named Osho.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Suprani, Rayma Venezuelan democracy activists Venezuelan human rights activists Women human rights activists Living people Venezuelan artists Venezuelan women activists Year of birth missing (living people)