(Now, to keep the conversation on our electoral system going, a guest post from friend-of-the-blog Sasha Ojeda and IT Specialist Sander Plas. Both of them are based in Amsterdam. Enjoy!) When we read Juan’s article about the (im)possibility of monitoring the voting process in real time and the many doubts surrounding the subject, we started…
(A guest post by Venezuelan economist and Harvard Research Fellow José Ramón Morales, despairing at the pervasiveness of populist discourse, even in the face of a bankrupt economy) Searching for a Reasonable Economic Narrative for the Opposition: A Provocation and an Invitation José Ramón Morales Arilla After years of attacks that reached the point of…
(This is a guest post by longtime reader Sasha Ojeda Mendoza, a Dutch-Venezuelan political scientist and blogger based in Amsterdam. Take it away, Sasha.) Entrenched politics and how to fail at self-reflection There is a long-standing consensus that chavismo will eventually collapse under its own weight – the economic situation making this scenario more and…
(This is a guest post by a longtime reader, who has fittingly chosen the pseudonym Old Parr) Adiós, Caracas A couple of days ago, as Juan Cristóbal Nagel was blogging about the incredible collapse of Venezuela that began in the late 1970’s, I sat down to watch it unfold thanks to the kindly pirate who uploaded…
(Apologies for the Spanish post. Hace unos días, la misteriosa plana mayor de El Universal le comunicó a varios de sus columnistas de opinión que ya no publicarían sus columnas. Esto hace pensar que la venta del diario más longevo de Venezuela va a implicar un sesgo hacia el gobierno. Uno de los columnistas afectados…
A special investigation by Kanako Noda. This post is available in Japanese here. 日本語でも読めます。 Este artículo está disponible en español aquí. The four Japanese students look hot and excited as they clutch their instruments and break into a rendition of “Fiesta en Elorza.” Their performance is accompanied by children dancing in colorful costumes. They’re in Elorza,…
(When I was in Bonn last week, I got the chance to meet Carmen Victoria Méndez, a journalist who used to cover the Caracas arts beat for El Nacional and Tal Cual. Carmen is now living in Germany, but her heart is in Venezuela, just like ours. This is a guest post from her. The pictures…
(A few weeks ago, I got an e-mail from a Venezuelan currently studying journalism in New York City, and yadda-yadda-yadda, Caracas Chronicles has a summer intern! Meet Rachelle Krygier. I am looking forward to hearing what she has to say. She’ll be blogging from Caracas for the next few months.) A man brings up his curtain…
(This is a guest post by Venezuelan anthropologist Pedro Manrique. We haven’t done one of these in a long time, and I kind of dug it. I hope you do too) Chavismo under the Orientalist Lens, by Pedro Manrique Exactly twenty-two years after Chávez said por ahora, a student in San Cristóbal became the victim of an…
(Since Cadivi is gasping its final breaths surrounded by controversy and not a minute too soon, this guest post by Iesa professor Pedro Luis Rodríguez could not be better timed. Rodríguez takes on Javier Corrales’ assertion that we’re mostly middle class, and concludes that it was all a mirage. Take a read and let us know how you view…
(A guest post by friend-of-the-blog and sometimes-collaborator Moraima García) As a long-time reader of the blog, I have to confess I was more than a tad skeptic when Juan announced where he wanted to take the blog, talking about trying to be optimistic. After all the destruction, can hope still live? No, I said to myself. Then … my grandmother got…
(A guest post by Daniela Alexandra Porat, a Toronto-based Venezuelan ex-pat and CC reader) Venezuela’s current crisis finds a mirror in the stories of the country’s padres huérfanos. These so-called “orphaned parents” are the older Venezuelans who send their offspring abroad to save them from the the brutal crime in Venezuela’s streets, helping them start…
… or a modest proposal for Venezuela (A guest post by friend-of-the-blog Daniel Lansberg-Rodríguez) The Emperor Gaius Caligula Caesar enjoys a hallowed a place within popular imagination. With the possible exception of Nero, whose alleged stint at fighting fire with music has historically received mixed reviews, it is Caligula’s reign that is remembered as the very…
(A reader sends us this translation of an interview with Marvinia Jiménez that appeared in El Carabobeño, a Valencia daily, a few weeks ago. Marvinia was brutally attacked at a protest, and is now charged with assaulting an officer) From El Carabobeño: Marvinia Jimenez, who was born with low mobility in half her body, has…
(Friend of the blog Daniel Raguá sends us this corollary to Dorothy’s latest post) Never mind inflation, scarcity, and all the rest. Here are some hidden nuggest in Venezuela’s recent economic history: The latest Doing Business Report ranks Venezuela 181 out of 189 countries in terms of ease of doing business. In the third quarter…
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