In a move that has surpassed even the most permissive standards of batshit lunacy, the Venezuelan government has published its definitive list of suspects linked to Patriota Cooperante José Pérez Venta’s murder and hacking-up of Liana Hergueta. Along with your everyday presidential assassins (María Corina Machado), arsonist coup mongers (Leopoldo López) and paramilitary fascists (Álvaro Uribe), newcomer…
As a regular fan of Con El Mazo Dando, I always suspected that the Patriotas Cooperantes, the mysterious network of government informants that infiltrate opposition ranks and compile dirt for Diosdado to use as defamatory fodder, didn’t actually exist. I was more inclined to dismiss them as fictional characters concocted in a VTV basement somewhere,…
The time has come to put away your Uncle Sam dart-boards, Silvio Rodriguez CD’s and you “Yankee, Go Home!” shirts. A Red White and Blue dawn has risen over the Ávila! American love is the future, baby! and I am…so confused. Remember how we once were so pissed off at the Imperialist North for wanting…
Over the last three years, divisions within the Venezuelan opposition have gone from taboo to in-your-face, from elephant in the room to full-blown suppurating eyesore. And everyone seems to admit this, except for the opposition leadership. I understand Chavismo’s need to resort to denial of dissent as a defense mechanism for unresolved daddy issues, but…
Making decisions can be tough, especially if you’re expected to solve the worst economic crisis in our petrostate’s memory on a 22% approval rating, and don’t have the first clue what you’re doing. Leave it to a psychopath like the Defense Minister to show you how it’s done. While Maduro dithers like a paralyzed hamster at the…
Our co-blogger Emiliana Duarte was on Al Jazeera’s The Stream the other day, sharing her thoughts on Venezuela with, among others, a very unpleasant misinformed gringo chavista (isn’t it time these people moved on and became “experts” on Greece or something?). Here’s the video. Kudos to Emiliana for doing a fine job.
Tomorrow, opposition leader María Corina Machado will go to the National Prosecutor’s Office to be indicted as an alleged conspirator in a plot to assassinate the President. Hefty charges that, if proven, carry the maximum penalty of 28 years in prison. In any other country, the “if proven” part of this sentence would be the most…
Over the past week, with the story of El Pollo Carvajal’s Aruba narco-escapade, and reports of an obscene dollars-imports-military scam, we have come to understand what we’re up against in Venezuela: drug-trafficking generals. Leave it to a last minute blocking of a U.S. Senate bill to clear things up a little more: we’re actually facing drug-trafficking…
The MUD has been getting a lot of flack lately for not getting things done. But the opposition alliance continues to use what little institutional maneuvering room it has to fight the good fight. Much of this flies under the radar, and it’ll never filter out into broader public attention, but at least the political…
Ahhhh.. everlasting love. Just the thing you need instead of basic food supplies and neoliberal announcements. Happy anniversary to the first couple (Thank you Capriles) of our failed state. May you have loving years of whiskers and salsa until 2019 (Thank you Capriles).
Still haven’t caught the fútbol bug? Here is the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela’s answer to all those schnazzy capitalist World Cup promos, courtesy of the genius and overfunded producers over at Televisión Venezolana Social (TVes), who, by the way, are celebrating today seven years since RCTV went off the air. It is hard to comment on…
Schoolyard politics dictate that when a bully beats up on the nerd, the nerd has to fight back. The nerd might be smarter, or have the moral high ground, hell, he will probably go on to invent the next amazing social network and sell it for billions and marry the hot chick. But for now,…
¿Have you met our sheep? Asked the Coronel, beaming with pride as he oozed a viscous, sticky brand of tropical cynicism. “One is actually half-goat, half-sheep. They keep our lawns nice and mowed as they feed. Its really a win-win.” Coronel Calles is the ranking army officer in charge of the Centro Penitenciario para Procesados…
Happy Dialogue Day, everyone! Time to put aside all your petty personal opinions and curb your oft-misguided emotions – today is a day for serious, rational discussion on the objective topic of the greater good. After two months of protests, dozens dead, hundreds wounded, three imprisoned opposition leaders (two of them acting mayors), one congress-woman stripped of…
A favorite source for those who still insist that freedom of speech in Venezuela is as thriving as ever is this BBC report (quoting the Communication Ministry), which states that only 5% of media outlets are owned by the State. The rest are in private hands, the argument goes, implying they’re therefore free to criticize the government.…
Caracas Chronicles 