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…
“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…
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,…
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)
Starting today, I will no longer be the main editor of Caracas Chronicles. For the past few weeks, several of us who write for the blog have concluded that Caracas Chronicles has become a brand that deserves a look and a content befitting its reputation. This calls for the blog to undergo some major, exciting changes. I…
Good old Maria Corina Machado. Today she was not allowed to register her candidacy due to the government’s push to have her barred from public office. So, instead, she announced that her replacement candidate would be Sociologist Isabel Pereira. I didn’t know much about Pereira before today, but from the looks of it, she brings…
The recent decision by Venezuela’s Supreme Tribunal, ordering Copei to put in place a board consisting of people they selected, presents a difficult conundrum for the opposition coalition, the MUD. The key thing here is that the Supreme Tribunal has ordered the Elections Council to only accept the roster of candidates the new Copei board proposes. Indirectly,…
Yesterday was not a good day for businesses operating inside Venezuela. First, the government decided to expropriate significant parts of Polar, Nestle, Coca-Cola, and Pepsi. The government claims the factories and distribution centers, located in Caracas’ working-class district of La Yaguara, were built on land they need for public housing. Never mind that the government is broke…
Malaria is endemic to the tropics. Years ago, Venezuela had erradicated the disease, but the country went to hell in a handbasket, so guess what? Malaria came back. And it came back with a vengeance, to the point that in 2013 Venezuela recorded 76,621 cases, the highest tally in the history of the country (well, at…
A new poll in Venezuela is showing continued deterioration in Venezuelans’ perceptions of their country, and of President Nicolás Maduro. The Venebarómetro poll, done by respected pollster Ivad in conjunction with Croes, Gutiérrez & Asociados, shows a worsening of the trends for Nicolás Maduro: 84% of Venezuelans think the situation in the country is “bad,” 57% of Venezuelans…
This Foreign Policy piece by Roberto Lovato has gotten a bit of pushback because of its less-than-rosy account of the public persona of Leopoldo López. And, in particular, for its cryptochavista fixation with the events of April, 2002. Putting that aside, though, it’s an accomplished, in-depth look at López’s life and career – where he grew up, who his…
“On July 14th three pasta-making factories stopped working. Bread manufacturing could stop in October. The problem in both sectors is the same: lack of wheat. The reason for this is that requirements for importing wheat have not been approved, and the dollars approved have not been paid since last March. There is also scarcity of bottled water, because…
One of the perks of writing the blog is that I get to meet and interact with interesting people I wouldn’t normally associate with – both in the comments section, and outside of it. Case in point: a few months ago I got the chance to spend some time with Carolina Acosta-Alzuru, a professor of Communication Studies…
(Una entrevista exclusiva con Caracas Chronicles) En la Quinta El Bejucal de Altamira todo es movimiento. La casa es de esas típicas quintas de los años cuarenta o cincuenta que recuerdan a una Venezuela que ya no existe – espacios amplios que integran la vegetación tropical a la casa, y que permiten que entre la…
The UN Human Rights Commission came out with a report (in draft form, but since everyone is tweeting about it, I assume it’s the definitive version) on Venezuela. You may recall that a few days ago, there was drama in Geneva as the Venezuelan government was dragged kicking and screaming to the UN to defend…
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