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…

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…

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…

You’ve heard it. Everyone’s heard it. In the early 1990s, the Venezuelan economy got so bad, poor people were forced to eat “Perrarina”, the popular dry dog food brand. But…is there any substance at all to this story? El Pitazo, one of the new crop of Venezuelan digital media outlets created followed the dismantling of the…

Rigid price controls, coupled with strict controls over the movement of food from one place to another, can break down society’s ability to feed itself. It’s a lethal combination. Put them together with enough political repression and the result can be famine. In Ukraine, in the 1930s, the combination of policies that made it impossible for…

Remember Jesse Chacón, Venezuela’s Electricity Czar? The guy’s useless at getting power flowing smoothly, of course, but you do have to give him credit for absolutely incredible, titanium-plated cojones. It was way back in April 2013 that Jesse famously promised to resign in 100 days if electric supply problems were not fixed. The supply problem was,…

General Raúl Baduel was granted parole yesterday after serving six years out of an eight year sentence on trumped up charges of embezzlement. Chávez’s one-time Defense Minister, and the man who organized his return to power by mobilizing the Parachute Regiment in his defense on April 13, 2002, General Baduel had been tried on transparently…

Carolina Acosta-Alzuru has a good riff about the need to wait until a country is ready to tell its stories. Venezuela isn’t ready to start telling its story yet, but one day, when the dust has settled and the country begins to find its voice, it’s going to be incredibly spoilt for choice: the one item where production has…