Much has been said about our newfound ability to tell which items are hidden inside a white supermarket bag. It has been etched into dozens of cartoons by almost all of our satire cartoonists. A commonplace joke that describes the loony state of mind in which we are thanks to scarcity, and all the crazy campaigns by the government to have us in…
No reason to beat around the bush: Marleny Contrera de Cabello, wife of Diosdado Cabello (President of the Venezuelan Congress), was just appointed Minister of Tourism. Seems like the Cabello family just binged on the last season of House of Cards, and suddenly craved some nepotism Underwood style. Madame Cabello, will be replacing Andrés Izarra, who…
On the second anniversary of his, erm, sowing, I couldn’t help but reflect back on this story. About a year ago, I had to represent a client —a Canadian company— before a public institution. “Represent” is not quite the word though, it was more like interpreting, decoding, and tearing apart a business deal. A representative from…
Bad news for our dear gringo friends, particularly those who have a death wish and were planning to travel to Venezuela in the near future: the Maduro administration will require US citizens to apply for (tourist) visas before entering Venezuelan territory. This measure is part of a (sort of) diplomatic retaliation package thoroughly crafted by Nicolas Maduro to get back to…
Twitter just lit up with reports of a SEBIN squad forcing their way into Antonio Ledezma’s office in el Rosal. Ledezma is the metropolitan mayor of Caracas, a post invented by chavismo to sort of oversee all the municipalities that integrate the city. After losing this stewardship to the opposition they have been trying to strip it from…
Farmatodo is one of the largest pharmacy chains in Venezuela. To our foreign friends, the Venezuelan equivalent to a Walgreens or a CVS. A productive family business that has been an example of intelligent growth during the past couple of decades (although it has a 96 year old story). Due to the large number of stores across the…
How close was Leamsy Salazar to President Chávez? Well, why don’t we let the eternal commander himself answer that question, in this Aló, Presidente clip from just after the 2002 coup attempt: “Salazar, which one are you in this picture?” asks Hugo Chávez, holding up a photo of a group of soldiers waving a flagon top…
On Monday afternoon, rumors started building on a story that would headline the Spanish newspaper, ABC, on Tuesday: “Security Chief of Chavista number 2 flees to the US and acuses him of drug smuggling.” By Chavista number 2 —you may not agree— the reporter, ABC’s Washington correspondent Emili J. Blasco, meant the President of the National Assembly,…
National Hoodlum’s Vacation On January 3rd the government was expected to announce the new economic measures for 2015. During that day we received a bunch of messages regarding the manner in which the government would inform the public. First, Maduro was going to drop the bomb all by himself. Later, we were told there were going to…
Nah, he hasn’t. I’m still troubled, however, by the indifference with what just happened. A brief recap: On Monday, President Nicolás Maduro held a rally against the Empire of the United States of America for the Venezuelan Defense of Human Rights and Civil Society Act. Yes, you’ve read about it here in the blog and everywhere else.…
Twenty Four hours before the Enabling Act expired Nicolas Maduro signed 28 new laws to “diversify and secure the economic growth of 2015.” Let us rewind to one year ago, when the Venezuelan National Assembly, thanks to the (gerrymandered) chavista majority, issued an all powerful Enabling Act to “enable” president Maduro with legislative super powers to enact laws without…
We dangle the word “Facho” (slang for fascist) quite easily. It’s a quick way to refer to certain individuals in the government who act as – how to put it nicely? – psychotic bullies. Sometimes, the term just fits. From the top of my head, some examples of chavista facho moments: Chávez firing thousands of workers from PDVSA during his live TV…
Earlier this week, chavismo’s hippest Troll Princess posted four pictures on Instagram showing four sides of her family. There’s no doubt she was engineered just to patch up her dad’s public face and present him as an approachable fella’. In these pics, we can see the almighty President of the National Assembly, Diosdado Cabello, wearing an apron and just goofin’…
Chuito Superstar A long time ago, way before we hit the 100s mark, on Wednesday, Chuo Torrealba accepted the chair as MUD’s secretary. It is clear that Chuo’s role will be different to that of RGA. As effective as MUD’s strategies were in the past (’cause they were, remember?), current developments in Venezuela call for a little…
God-finger Remember the good old days when the problem was that Venezuelan food was rotting in the ports? Yeah, at least then we had food. PDVAL was the state-owned company at the center of all food supply scandals. After a while, PDVAL disappeared from the front pages. It seems as if the government wants to relaunch…
Caracas Chronicles 