On May 28th Venezuela celebrated the International Menstrual Hygiene Day. On that day, we embraced: …the opportunity to create awareness of the right of women and girls to hygienically manage their menstruation – in privacy, safety and with dignity – Because, good menstrual hygiene management (MHM) plays a key role in enabling women and girls to reach their…
For three days, the indigenous community of Kanaimö closed the airport (landing strip) in Canaima National Park, protesting the destruction and havoc that illegal mining is causing at the riverbend of the Carrao River, part of the Canaima lagoon, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. You can find this video on their youtube channel explaining the situation in full detail.…
So, this flew under my radar, but apparently Maduro backtracked on the the decision to fuse the Environmental Ministry and the Habitat Ministry, and now, we will once again have and environmental ministry. It will be called the Ecosocialism and Water Ministry (time to change the letterhead AGAIN guys) and the new minister is Guillermo Barreto. Barreto will…
The statements by Freddy Bernal, saying that gay people can be cops as long as they don’t say so, are apalling, infuriating and shameful. Furthermore, to see a news anchor sit quitely while such bigotry is being spewed out in his studio is even worse. In his little speech, Bernal tries (and fails) to explain why the Police Force cannot…
First, I want to apologize, but this post is going to sound like a dialogue from The Departed. As we all know, no other country in the world cares so much about the environment as Venezuela. We care sooo much that we disbanded revamped our Environmental Ministry and created and even better one, (it’s better because it now has the…
6:30 p.m. “I’m sorry, we can’t treat her here, we have no beds available” says the medical employee. Martha, María, José and Sula share nervous glances. They’re at the front door of Centro Medico Total, a private clinic. Their mother, “Mami” started having difficulty breathing in the afternoon, just after having a nasal feeding tube removed.…
(Apologies for the source of the above video, it was the only version available on YouTube) The bloggers of Caracas Chronicles held a cyber-conversation on today’s announcement by Henrique Capriles, where he abandoned infighting within the opposition and called for unity together with increased street pressure on the government. Juan C: So … main takeaways? To…
I have fond memories of the IVIC, the Venezuelan Institute for Scientific Research. I only got to spend a few months there, specifically in the Cellular Neuropharmacology Lab as part of a short internship – all fun stuff, even got to do scorpion milking once – but I enjoyed every minute of it. What blew my mind was how well equipped the…
Esteemed Capitalist Pig, A socialist greeting to you! The following is to notify you that, even though the Central Government is now working on a new political framework to cope with violence against women – specially that inflicted by family members or partners – you, by virtue of being a dirty capitalist, imperialist and escuálida apátrida, do not qualify for said…
“You have to wait,” said the lady at the Embassy. “But I have been waiting, it’s been almost a month and my daughter’s passport expires in just a few weeks,” I protested. The lady pursed her lips. She was getting tired of me. There was a modest line of people outside the embassy door. They all clutched their manila…
I could begin this post by saying how insulting the appointment of María Gabriela Chávez as the Alternate Ambassador to the U.N is. I could say this is a slap in the face to all the International Studies students and professionals, how this is further evidence of the ways this government belittles higher learning, how people are chosen not by…
When bulldozers started turning up at La Restinga National Park, the first to jump into action were students from ECAM, the Applied Marine Sciences Department (ECAM) of the Universidad de Oriente. That didn’t surprise me. I’m an alumna of ECAM. Our school’s ethos was built on protecting La Restinga, the mangrove national park and ecological sanctuary that is a must when…
(This is a rare double post on the blog. A few weeks ago, Audrey brought up the idea that we should write about abortion. After much prodding, I reluctantly agreed. Initially, I thought the topic was too painful and incendiary for us to reach any common ground. Since it cuts to the very essence of what it is…
“You know, I want to go back to Caracas now.” It caught me off guard to hear my five year old daughter say this. It’s been almost a year since we came out to live in self-imposed economic exile. But she said it like, you know, our life here is cool and everything, but I want to go back…
Road rage between motorcycles, pedestrians, and vehicles is an everyday sight in Caracas. The asphalt is a hard-fought battle ground. In recent times, radicalism and mediocre policy-making have exacerbated our differences. There is no social pact on how we should conduct ourselves, particularly on the streets. Rather than an harmonic choreography, coexistence between pedestrians, drivers and…
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