---
title: En posesión de su presa (In Possession of Its Prey)
url: https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/en-posesion-de-su-presa-el-diablo-1894/
description: A large lion labelled 'Inglaterra' lies with one paw on a woman in a sash marked 'Venezuela', who is sprawled on the ground; a sword lettered 'Crespo'…
section: Collection
---

[Collection](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/)

[![En posesión de su presa (In Possession of Its Prey)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/en-posesion-de-su-presa-el-diablo-1894.jpg)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/images/en-posesion-de-su-presa-el-diablo-1894.jpg)

# En posesión de su presa (In Possession of Its Prey)

A large lion labelled 'Inglaterra' lies with one paw on a woman in a sash marked 'Venezuela', who is sprawled on the ground; a sword lettered 'Crespo' lies beside them and a building marked 'Congres[o]' stands at the edge of the frame. The line beneath reads 'in possession of its prey'. Fear-appeal tell: the border dispute is drawn as a predator already devouring the nation, with the country shown as a helpless victim.

- **Date:** June 2, 1894
- **Period:** [Pre-1914](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#era=pre-1914)
- **Made by:** El Diablo (Venezuelan satirical periodical), year IV, no. 87
- **Region:** [Latin America](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#region=latin-america)
- **Country:** [Venezuela](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#country=venezuela)
- **Medium:** [Cartoon](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#medium=cartoon)
- **Issuer type:** [Media](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#actor=media)
- **Regime:** [Crespo Government](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#regime=crespo-government)
- **Leader:** [Joaquin Crespo](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#leader=joaquin-crespo)
- **Audience:** [Domestic public](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#audience=domestic-public)
- **Purpose:** [Demonize](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#purpose=demonize)
- **Theme:** [Empire and colonialism](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#theme=empire-colonialism)
- **Event:** [Venezuela British Guiana Boundary Dispute](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/#event=venezuela-british-guiana-boundary-dispute)
- **Techniques:** [Fear appeal](https://propagandaarchive.org/techniques/fear-appeal/)
- **Source:** Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
- **Source:** [Wikimedia Commons (reproduced from a Venezuelan school textbook)](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Caricatura_Las_garras_del_Le%C3%B3n.jpg), retrieved September 29, 2026
- **Rights:** Public domain (published Venezuela 1894, before 1931; Commons PD-Venezuela tag on file page) El Diablo (Venezuela) year IV no. 87, 2 June 1894, via Wikimedia Commons

## Text on the object

Original (Spanish) · read from the image, not independently checked

```
EN POSESIÓN DE SU PRESA

[on the lion:] INGLATERRA
[on the sash:] VENEZUELA
[on the sword:] CRESPO.
[on the building at upper right, cut off by the edge:] CONGRES[...]
```

English translation (machine translation by Claude, not verified by a fluent reader)

```
IN POSSESSION OF ITS PREY

[on the lion:] ENGLAND
[on the sash:] VENEZUELA
[on the sword:] CRESPO.
[on the building at upper right, cut off by the edge:] CONGRES[S]
```

The word on the building is cut off at the right edge of the reproduction and is read as 'Congreso' only by inference.

[← The Great Battle of Ansong Ford: The Valor of Captain Matsuzaki](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/ansong-ford-toshikata-1894/) [劉永福懸賞抓拿日本奸細告示 (Liu Yongfu's notice offering rewards for capturing Japanese spies), Taiwan →](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/liu-yongfu-reward-notice-japanese-spies-1895/)

## Using the same techniques

- [Anacoana fut pendue sans raison (engraving in Le miroir de la cruelle et horrible tyrannie espagnole)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/anacoana-hanged-miroir-tyrannie-espagnole-1620/) (1620 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [Der Warner (broadsheet lampoon on the Jesuits after Breitenfeld and Rain)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/der-warner-anti-jesuit-broadsheet-1632/) (1632 · Scapegoating, Fear appeal)
- [Sans-Culottes, feeding Europe with the Bread of Liberty (James Gillray)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sans-culottes-bread-of-liberty-gillray-1793/) (Jan 12, 1793 · Fear appeal, Name-calling)
- [豬叫取胎圖 (Picture of the Pig Sect Extracting a Foetus), from Reverently Obeying the Sacred Edict: A Complete Picture Gallery to Repel Heterodoxy](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/pig-cry-taking-foetus-hunan-1891/) (1891 · Fear appeal, Name-calling). Content note: Colour woodblock caricature depicting foreign Christians as members of a 'pig' sect and showing them cutting a foetus from a woman; violence against a woman and derision of Christianity.
- [The Radical Programme, No. 4: Dismemberment of the Empire (Gladstone & Co. auction India), St Stephen's Review Presentation Cartoon](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/radical-programme-selling-india-st-stephens-review-1891/) (Oct 31, 1891 · Fear appeal, Scapegoating)
- [劉永福懸賞抓拿日本奸細告示 (Liu Yongfu's notice offering rewards for capturing Japanese spies), Taiwan](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/liu-yongfu-reward-notice-japanese-spies-1895/) (1895 · Name-calling, Fear appeal)
- [Sífilis: Curación absoluta y radical en el Sanatorio para sifilíticos (Syphilis: Absolute and Radical Cure at the Sanatorium for Syphilitics)](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/sifilis-sanatorio-abreu-1900/) (1900 · Fear appeal)
- [時局圖 (The Situation in the Far East / Map of the Present Situation), newer version with English labels](https://propagandaarchive.org/collection/situation-in-far-east-tse-tsan-tai-1900/) (1900 · Fear appeal)