This is the image that brought global attention to the crisis in Venezuela. It shows 44-year-old Caterina Ciarcelluti — who has been dubbed Venezuela’s "Wonder Woman" — in denim Daisy Dukes, a tank top, crash helmet, and aviator sunglasses. Her blonde locks are flowing as she launches a rock at the national guard during a protest in Caracas. To say that she is toned and tanned is an understatement — she looks like a competitor in a Bodybuilding championship. There’s no doubt that rock is being sent across enemy lines with blistering force. [news.co.au, May 9th]
The "face" of the Venezuelan people's fight to rid themselves of the Maduro regime turned out to have an impressive physique attached. And the media, from Australia and around the world, albeit briefly, couldn't get enough of her. So, they wondered, how does the "toned and tanned" Caterina physically prepare herself for the fight?
She "hates gyms" and instead uses the Ávila, the magnificent forested mountain that overlooks Caracas, for her daily exercise, reported The Times' Stephen Gibbs a few days before the story appeared in Australia. That involves a jog up the hill at 6am carrying weights followed by an hour and a half of exercises at altitude. By 8am, after a five-egg-white omelette, she is ready for her day job as a personal trainer for private clients. She is not especially unusual, she claimed, in her fitness regime.
Ms Ciarcelluti, who is divorced, is in considerably better shape than most of the uniformed forces she faces. "We Venezuelan women are all guerrilleras. It’s in our personality," she said, "We tend to look after ourselves physically."
By the end of July, Caterina was donning a gas mask when she took to the streets, Maduro was still doing his batshit crazy dictator thing, and The Mail was belatedly jumping onto the "Wonder Woman" bandwagon. The blonde fitness fanatic's Instagram account, which shows her exercising, posing for selfies and taking part in demonstrations, has amassed nearly 75,000 followers, noted Julian Robinson, studiously keeping the foreign politics to a minimum for The Mail's readership.
Since then, the world's media seems to have moved on from its brief but intense fascination with Venezuela and their "Wonder Woman", but it was nice (from a female muscle lovin' perspective anyway) to have a strong, beautiful woman in the headlines while it lasted. Caterina has carried on doing what she does regardless. Anyone can like a body, she noted, somewhat philosophically, about the recent media attention and increase in her following. She has more important things to think about though.
¡Viva Venezuela!
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