Caracas Chronicles is getting closer to our Epic Relaunch. It’s going to be pretty great. And you – yes you – can be a part of it. We’re looking for great new writers, and for an outstanding podcast producer. The ideal candidate lives in Venezuela, isn’t scared to do some reporting on the street, can read and maybe even write…
There’s a special fascination to the genre: the fallen-from-grace former true believer whose life embodies every stalinist fiber in chavismo’s body but who is just physically unable to grasp how his personal experience comprehensively refutes his political ideology. The layers upon layers of self-delusion of sheer automojoneamiento involved are engrossing. And no one but no one is in…
Last night, while Maduro was rambling on TV about how he and Russia will stabilize world oil prices, the El Valle river flooded. Before signing off from his weekly TV show, the disaster was brought to the President’s attention, and he went on to criticize the ultraderecha twitter commentators who blamed his administration for the flood. “Imbeciles” he…
What exactly is the government trying to signal through Aragua Governor Tareck El-Aissami’s extremely high profile over the last few days? In the space of a week, he went from announcing a major security operation on the Colombian border to making a new batch of paranoid-schizophrenic allegations of opposition murder plots. Why him? Technically, Tareck…
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro shut down a piece of the border with Colombia a few days ago. Not happy with that, he has begun rounding up Colombian citizens and expelling them from the country, no questions asked. Their homes are being torn down. Maduro claims he is the victim of drug smugglers and paramilitaries. However, the…
(Yes. Tomorrow.)
Last night, Tarek el Aissami, ex-Minister of Justice and current Governor of Aragua, was in charge of reading part of the State of Emergency Decree which will rule over five municipalities of the Western Venezuela border state of Táchira. The decree which, according to El Aissami, reflects “the supreme importance that Central Government places on Human…
“Mommy, can we get some French fries?” asked my daughter as we drove past the massive granite monolith that is the McDonald’s store of La Castellana in Caracas. “There are no French fries in Venezuela, baby” sentenced my wife. My daughter’s eyes dampened like that was the saddest thing she ever heard. And perhaps it was.…
In a move that has surpassed even the most permissive standards of batshit lunacy, the Venezuelan government has published its definitive list of suspects linked to Patriota Cooperante José Pérez Venta’s murder and hacking-up of Liana Hergueta. Along with your everyday presidential assassins (María Corina Machado), arsonist coup mongers (Leopoldo López) and paramilitary fascists (Álvaro Uribe), newcomer…
“Who comes from Colombia to Venezuela? These are people who come with no education, without a penny in their pocket, it’s the poor who come fleeing … Venezuela has become a magnet, a guarantee for social rights for the Colombian people. I have to say it, and I ask for your understanding … I don’t offend Colombia…
Less than a week after announcing an open tender for bids on security paper meant for printing Bs.50 and Bs.100 bills, the Venezuelan Central Bank (BCV), revealed that they are conducting a study on the merits of issuing a BsF. 500 banknote. That this realization is past-due would be an understatement: the graphic designs and printing sheet for…
The episode is seared into the opposition’s collective psyche: with his approval ratings already in freefall, Nicolas Maduro headed into state and local elections in late 2013 facing a certain drubbing. Then, at the last minute, he had a great idea. Inviting people to quasi-legally loot a popular electronics-and-appliances chain of shops would be sure…
Before Julio Coco. Before Irene Saez, and El Conde del Guácharo, and Luis Chataing. Before Hugo Chávez himself, there was Renny. Renny Ottolina was the ultimate political outsider. A cross between Ed Sullivan and Jon Stewart, Renny was a fixture in Venezuelan TV for much of the 1960s and 1970s. In the middle of that decade,…
Is it possible to forecast how many seats the government and the opposition will get in the National Assembly on the basis of National-level polls? It’s a tough problem, but ahead of the 2010 National Assembly election, we showed it can be done. And this year, with a little help from our friends over at Distortioland,…
On Tuesday evening, President Nicolás Maduro announced what in revolutionary newspeak is referred to as a sacudón (shake-up), otherwise known to the rest of the globe as cabinet reshuffle. The most noteworthy replacement happened in the Ministry of the Popular Power for Petroleum and Mining. Eulogio Del Pino, who is, and will continue to be, the chief of state oil company PDVSA, will be taking…
Somewhere between not publishing official economic data and overseeing a banknote printing frenzy on steroids, Venezuela’s Central Bank (BCV) still finds time for the mundane. According to this tweet from Bloomberg News correspondent Nathan Crooks, our maximum monetary authority just announced an open tender for the procurement of (and I’m not making this up) tuxedos for waiters. As in,…
Nothing Leopoldo López says in this clandestine video is new. But hearing the conviction in his voice, clinging to the bars on his window, is more powerful than anything he says. (Note: the video appears to be old, but it has only recently been released)
Jim Wyss has a shocking story in the Miami Herald about the sprawling state-sponsored human trafficking ring known as Barrio Adentro, and the Cuban doctors now getting stranded in Bogota as they try to flee indentured servitude in Venezuela. The stories the Cuban doctors tell tell read like the stories of Eritrean refugees trying to get…
Want to make Rafael Ramirez really uncomfortable? Start talking about the need for a Transitional Government, no matter what the context. The United Nations Security Council expressed support for Syria mediation efforts on Monday, but in a rare move Venezuela dissociated itself from references in the statement to any mentions of political transition and or transitional…
As a regular fan of Con El Mazo Dando, I always suspected that the Patriotas Cooperantes, the mysterious network of government informants that infiltrate opposition ranks and compile dirt for Diosdado to use as defamatory fodder, didn’t actually exist. I was more inclined to dismiss them as fictional characters concocted in a VTV basement somewhere,…
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