After so many years, few things chavistas throw our way make us do a double take. This one did: Delcy Rodríguez, Nicolás Maduro’s former minister of Communications, the über-chavista, radical sister of equally über-chavista mayor of Libertador (Caracas) Jorge Rodríguez, wants to be … a justice in the nation’s highest court! Never mind the fact that she is…
What does the peanut gallery think? Put aside your feelings about a Constitutional Assembly, and admit … that’s one rockin’ video.
As Venezuela currently faces a major shortage of medicines (with, literally, deadly consequences), a related case of corruption involving the purchase of large amounts of medicine from Cuba moves ahead. The case was the reason behind a controversial, little known decision by the TSJ’s (Venezuela’s Supreme Tribunal of Justice) Administrative Chamber last week. A few years…
In the last two years, the document known as Plan de la Patria (Plan for the Fatherland) has become frequently used in Venezuelan politics, even if it’s quite doubtful that many people have actually read it. (I tried to do it once. TRIED.) What was originally intended as the electoral platform or program of the…
Recluta… there’s a word that brings memories. (In most, if not all cases, not happy ones). For a country that’s gone over 150 years without a proper shootin’ war, the need for a military draft is a little hard to understand, and yet we’ve had one for as long as anyone can remember. My dad…
Venezuela is divided into states. States are divided into municipalities. Each municipality has one mayor, and each state has one governor.That is what the Constitution says. Simple, right? Well, no. The Maduro administration wants to change Venezuela’s territorial distribution and put it all upside down. But even if the new Territorial Organization bill has not…
I had never seen this 1998 conversation between then-candidate Hugo Chávez and the formidable, recently deceased Oscar Yanes. I picked it up through my Facebook feed, from the page of one of my come-candela friends. Instead of being horrified, I watched in fascination as Chávez navigated the interview without a hitch. We all hated him,…
Back to basics: according to the Constitution of 1999, Venezuela is now organized into 23 States (which are divided in 335 Municipalities), a Capital District and a small group of islands known as the Federal Dependencies. But that could completely change in the near future, thanks to a brand new Law of Territorial Organization to be…
Primero Justicia congressman Richard Mardo was stripped of his parliamentary immunity yesterday. In a 97-68 vote (that’s 59-41 in percentage terms, in case you’re wondering) the chavista majority in the National Assembly (read: Diosdado Cabello and his minions) pretty much took away his popular mandate, and in the process used Article 187 of the Constitution as…
The thoroughgoing collapse of law-based government in Venezuela has been a constant theme in this blog since 2002. But this week, in a time-wasting exercise of epic proportions, I decided to try to put a number to the timeless question: exactly how screwed is the 1999 librito azul? In a quick first run-through, I can…
I know Quico hates it when I post random bullet points of stuff, but there are several things I need to say, and I don’t have time today for an ellaborate post on each one: Don’t dwell too much on the mass hysteria and the adoring throngs of people. First off, they are not one…
Constitutional lawyer José Ignacio Hernández has been writing up a storm over at Prodavinci. It figures – chavistas are violating laws so quickly it makes your head spin. It’s really hard to keep up. In his latest, not only does he question the validity of the robot-signed decree appointing Elías Jaua as Foreign Minister, he…
A few years ago, Teodoro Petkoff made audiences guffaw with his bon mot about how, more and more, the Chávez government treats the Constitution as though it were a subversive pamphlet. Today, as we greet news that the government is actually moving to stop an opposition newschannel from broadcasting any discussion of one of the constitution’s…
To get a sense of just how needless the constitutional crisis developing in Venezuela really is, let’s just step back from the play-by-play and take stock of where we are as of Wednesday, January 9th, 2013 – one day ahead of the official end of the 2007-2013 presidential period. We have a president who hasn’t…
Minutes ago, the President of the National Assembly Diosdado Cabello just read a letter from Vice-President Nicolas Maduro, in which he indicates that President Hugo Chavez won’t attend the official inauguration of his third term of office (2013-2019), established to start on that specific date according to the Article 231 of the Venezuelan Constitution. In…
Caracas Chronicles 