Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro’s attempt to use Latin hit “Despacito” – which means ‘slowly’ – to inject some cool into his controversial new Congress has backfired quickly.

Maduro’s unpopular leftist government on Sunday promoted a remixed version of “Despacito” to encourage Venezuelans to vote for the Constituent Assembly, which will have powers to rewrite the national charter and supersede other institutions.

But Puerto Rican singers Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee on Monday said they do not approve at all, as did song co-writer Erika Ender.

Millions of Venezuelans have been staging months of protests against Maduro, a former bus driver and union leader narrowly elected to replace the late Hugo Chavez in 2013. Some 100 people have died in the unrest.