Over on the IHT, I meditate on what a long, strange week it’s been… Given the impenetrability of Cuban state secrecy, it’s hard not to speculate that even if the president has already died, we would have no way of knowing it. Venezuelans now have a Schrödinger president: a leader suspended in quantum indeterminacy, simultaneously alive…
A few readers criticized me for implying, in a previous post, that the more educated you are, the less likely it is (or should be) that you are chavista. Putting aside the obvious correlation that leads me to this, I get where they’re coming from. Hopefully, they will make an effort to get where I…
$100 billion. That’s how much oil discounts have cost Venezuela since 1999, according to estimations by a group of oil researchers who go by the name of Subaeshi. Now, you may wonder what business I have quoting some random group of people from the Internet. But heck, check for yourselves – I can’t see any…
It’s not just a great name for a band: 45 years ago this week, a group of Cuban and Cuban-trained Venezuelan guerrillas actually tried to invade Venezuela by sea through Machurucuto (just east of Higuerote). Machurucuto was a kind of through-the-looking-glass Bay of Pigs that went just as badly as the original: when all was…
After disappearing for a few days (and leaving in his trail a swathe of rumours about his health), President Hugo Chávez reappeared today in what appeared to be a live broadcast from his home state of Barinas. In a dramatic speech, with his daughter at his side (apparently holding back tears), with Vice-President Elías Jaua…
The Cuban flag proudly waves next to the Venezuelan tricolor inside a Venezuelan military compound. HT: Memo Arocha, photo courtesy of El Carabobeño. PS: Busy today with work, so a short post, but this picture is worth a thousand posts. Plus Quico is … preoccupied.
Caracas Chronicles 