MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chavez is also father of an embarrassing teen-ager who angers Venezuelans

Rosines and her handful of bills from the ‘evil empire’

President Hugo Chávez 14-year-old daughter, Rosines angered Venezuelans and embarrassed her father by posting a picture of her holding a handful of US dollars on the web.

The greenbacks in the picture are of small denomination but the picture caused outrage in Venezuela.

The Chávez government has tightly controlled the trading of U.S dollars in the country for almost a decade, limiting the annual amount of dollars Venezuelans can buy; those who need more foreign currency for business or for travel, must dig deep into their pockets to buy dollars at exorbitant prices in the country’s black market.

Obviously, the teenage Rosines had no say in this unpopular policy, which was imposed by Chávez in a -– relatively unsuccessful — effort to stop investors from taking their assets out of the country, and is now seen by some as a way for the government to exert its influence on the private sector.

But the irony of the picture was not lost on Venezuelans, who have previously seen El Comandante’s daughter post photos of her comfortable, and some say, capitalist lifestyle on Twitter and other social networks.

Currently on her Twitter profile, Rosines boasts a picture of herself posing with Canadian pop idol Justin Bieber, whom she met while he was on tour in Venezuela, thanks to her father’s influence.

Her dollar picture however has been Roisines’ most popular by far. It has inspired a new verb in Venezuelan slang “rosinesing,” and prompted Twitter users in Venezuela and elsewhere to post their own (most ironic) versions of the Rosines picture.

Rosinés is daughter of the Venezuelan leader with his former wife Marisabel Rodríguez.