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…
That title is not mine. I wish I could claim it: it’s brilliant. But it belongs to Jorge Giordani. It’s what he meant to call a book he wanted to write about La Revolucion Apparatchik. We hear about it in a long Contrapunto interview with perhaps the second figure most responsible for the mess we’re in. The interview…
(For this week’s sobremesa, Rodrigo chimes in re. the “morality” of selling your dollar allowance) In Venezuela you get a yearly dollar allowance. If you use your allowance, nothing happens. If you sell your allowance, you could face jail time, and also be considered traitor to you Fatherland. But is it morally wrong to sell what the…
For the last decade we have been told that consumerism … is bad. It is evil. It sustains the capitalists, who in return exploit the common folk. The State must intervene on behalf of the common folk and restore the means of production to the proletariat. Stop exploitation is the calling. We need to call them…
If you’re like most people, for you election day means queuing up, voting, then going back home to try to relax, at least up until it’s baranda time. Not for me. In each of the last eight elections I’ve left home at 5:00 am and gotten back at 1:00 am, hungry, bone tired and smelling like a metro station. I…
Here’s what we know so far about the MUD primaries for National Assembly nominations: they will happen on May 17th, and only in 38 out of 87 districts up for election. Compared it to the previous parliamentary elections, we had primaries in 22 out of 87 district. The fact that there will be more primaries now is an improvement, but given…
Last week MUD Secretary General Jesus Torrealba announced that opposition primaries for the National Assembly elections will be held on May 3rd. A scant few hours earlier Ledezma had been snatched by SEBIN. The timing of Torrealba’s announcement made some opposition supporters furious: people went cuckoo denouncing how insulting it was to be talking about primaries when…
At the core of a somewhat dull discussion on Venezuela’s financial sustainability the failure of the opposition narrative appears. The panel counts, of course, with Francisco Rodriguez, on a secondary role Jaime Reusche (Vice President and Senior Analyst, Sovereign Risk Group, Moody’s Investors Services) and with a surprise appearance we get Alejandro Velasco, (Assistant Professor…
December 2nd, 2014. 8:06 am. I am walking north from the Plaza Venezuela subway station toward La Florida. I cross Libertador Avenue. The blind man is there, as always. A couple of weeks before, I witnessed how a National Guard unit blocked traffic in this same intersection to allow two black luxury SUVs with tinted glass…
Some people believe that the crisis we are suffering is just a manifestation of something deeper, part of a set of unresolved cultural tensions. Key among these is the tension between modernity and rural life. We just can’t shake it off. Rural life is still present in our cities, in our families, and in ourselves. The late Venezuelan…
Chavismo has always had two big weapons: a gigantic wad of cash and an incredible compelling narrative. The importance of the latter is easy to overlook. So powerful is it that after 2 years of recession and the highest inflation in the world, chavismo still holds a relatively strong 30% popularity. The narrative is quite simple.…
Recent polls have been conveying an alarming reality: 10% of Venezuelans are looking into emigrating. These same polls showed that in 2002 and 2004 only 4% harbored these ideas. I don’t want to dwell on why people are leaving, as the reality is obvious. The question we need to ask ourselves is how we can make them come back. To…
Quico and I had a non-quibble a few days ago about poverty. I criticized poverty measures, and he beat me up about it. Truth is that I agree with him. Poverty is a very complex thing with many definitions: income, savings, choices, and even expenditure. People have tried to package it in a single indicator, but numbers end…
A tragedy occurred a few days ago in Barinas. Six children died in a fire. The fire was triggered by a short circuit after a service interruption. Typically, after a service interruption voltage surges, which in turn can cause cable insulation to melt and short circuit. One must ask then, did we do a disservice to provide…
The PSUV has delayed the election of its leadership now for three years. This has not been easy to swallow for party loyalists, particularly those who adamantly believe in “participatory democracy” but have been deceived by the idea that the national elections took precedence over democracy inside the party. But as the governing party heads toward its first…
Caracas Chronicles 