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.”[1] She was forced to leave the country and now lives in exile in Miami, Florida[2] 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.”[3] Born in Caracas, Venezuela,[4] Suprani began painting as a teenager and trained for several years in the workshop of Pedro Centeno Vallenilla.

[1] Suprani was El Universal's chief cartoonist for 19 years where she often faced criticism from state media and government supporters regarding her satirical cartoons.

The paintings, he maintained, represented “a demonstration of strength and courage that excited me, showed me another side of the same creator.”[3] Suprani has also drawn magazine covers, and the best of her cartoons have been collected in books.

[8] 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.”[9] 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.”[9] Only hours after the publication of the cartoon, Suprani was fired.