(A guest post by friend-of-the-blog Daniel Lansberg-Rodríguez) It’s amazing how little of the truly delicious ridiculousness spouted by the regime’s members gets noticed abroad, isn’t it? Since the death of Chávez, whose personal musings regarding, say, Martian economics or eau de azufre, would sporadically find their way into international news, today equally delectable morsels cooked up by his…
When the comandante presidente went public with his cancer in June 2011, I was out of the country. When people asked me about it, I told them that Chavez claimed he had cancer, but there was no medical report to provide details about his condition. He didn’t even say the specific part of his body…
Six days after his last public appearance, Hugo Chávez is on TV again. Same setting. Pretty much the same attendees. Zero contact with the people. The topic of his boring talk today? The regional elections, and how the opposition is apparently moronic for thinking that something called “Constitutional” had anything to do with modifying the…
This is simply upsetting. Speaking to supporters in Cabimas, Chávez literally promises to “be more efficient, a better companion, a better person,” adding “I won’t fail you.” That “companion” bit got me. I mean, I know it’s a marialejandralopecista talking point, but jeezum crow, the cycle of violence overtones here are downright eerie. Venezuela is…
The comandante presidente said the following during a rally in Maturin: “There can be some people could be unsatisfied with the failures of our government, that the streets aren’t fixed, that electricity is out and water isn’t running, that they don’t have a job and their house wasn’t delivered on time… …That’s not what’s at…
Capriles has spent the last few months working to portray Chávez as out-of-touch with “the concerns of people like you”: a guy who let power get to his head and now spends more time worrying about geostrategy and saving humanity than working to fix the pothole on your street or the leaky roof in your…
Laureano Márquez has a wonderful piece today, where he weighs in on the milieu of the times. So if you’re the sort of person who thinks milieu counts for something, go and read it… (in Spanish, btw) The money quote: “Si hay que insistir tanto en que el candidato opositor no es lo que parece,…
Did Chávez have his “you didn’t build that” moment after the Amuay disaster when he said that, accident or no accident, “as some philosopher whose name I don’t remember said, The Show Must Go On“? Both were gaffes, and the attacks each spawned are arguably unfair. But both seem to transcend questions of context by…
Después dicen que el gobierno no es eficiente. A scant 36 hours after the Amuay disaster, and just 24 hours after he had promised an “exhaustive investigation” President Chávez has already ruled out both maintenance issues and the possibility of a pre-existing gas leak as possible reasons for the blast. Personally! The range of politically acceptable outcomes…
For once, today, Venezuela faced a situation where a Cadena Nacional would have been entirely appropriate, even welcome. Facing a genuine national disaster, people naturally turn to their leader for explanation, for guidance, for leadership, for solace. Handling events like last night’s is why Cadenas are supposed to exist in the first place, ¡coño! And…
What’s scarier? That chavistas think these images are going to make da kidz vote for Chávez, or that they’re right, possibly? And, pardon me while I pick up my cédula but, what the hell does “otro beta” mean!? Can it really be that for the last 14 years all we’ve been doing is testing a…
The comandante presidente announced to the press before a campaign rally in Catia La Mar that authorities detained a man in the border with Colombia, which he described as a “presumed American mercenary of Latin origin“. Though no details about his identity were revealed, Chavez said he had “…the appearance of a mercenary” and that…
Not Chávez, not CAP, but… Ricardo Montalban. Now, that is uncanny. All S-Bol needs now is a midget next to him shouting “el galeón! el galeón!” [HT: hgdam.]
Actually, it makes for a pretty good read… I started watching as a lark but became fascinated with the show when I realized, with some unease, that it was the most real reality TV I’d ever seen. Most shows called “reality TV” are marked by a strong measure of fakery. Strangers are stuffed into a…
After mistakenly tweeting tonight that another Supreme Court justice and a high-ranking military officer had fled to the United States, one would be tempted to chastise Ismael García for spreading false rumors. I say to Ismael: more power to ya. Chavistas have been toying with our emotions and rolling the gossip balls for years now.…
Caracas Chronicles 