Join the Caracas Chronicles Team

Caracas Chronicles is getting closer to our Epic Relaunch. It’s going to be pretty great. And you – yes you – can be a part of it. We’re looking for great new writers, and for an outstanding podcast producer. The ideal candidate lives in Venezuela, isn’t scared to do some reporting on the street, can read and maybe even write…

Nicmer’s Terminal Case of Esto-es-el-colmo Syndrome

There’s a special fascination to the genre: the fallen-from-grace former true believer whose life embodies every stalinist fiber in chavismo’s body but who is just physically unable to grasp how his personal experience comprehensively  refutes his political ideology. The layers upon layers of self-delusion of sheer automojoneamiento involved are engrossing. And no one but no one is in…

Sh!tstorm Chronicles

Last night, while Maduro was rambling on TV about how he and Russia will stabilize world oil prices, the El Valle river flooded. Before signing off from his weekly TV show, the disaster was brought to the President’s attention, and he went on to criticize the ultraderecha twitter commentators who blamed his administration for the flood. “Imbeciles” he…

Why Tareck?

What exactly is the government trying to signal through Aragua Governor Tareck El-Aissami’s extremely high profile over the last few days? In the space of a week, he went from announcing a major security operation on the Colombian border to making a new batch of paranoid-schizophrenic allegations of opposition murder plots.  Why him? Technically, Tareck…

State of Emergency Declared in Táchira

Last night, Tarek el Aissami, ex-Minister of Justice and current Governor of Aragua, was in charge of reading part of the State of Emergency Decree which will rule over five municipalities of the Western Venezuela border state of Táchira. The decree which, according to El Aissami, reflects “the supreme importance that Central Government places on Human…

Everyone and their mothers is implicated in the Hergueta murder

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…

Another Dakazo?

The episode is seared into the opposition’s collective psyche: with his approval ratings already in freefall, Nicolas Maduro headed into state and local elections in late 2013 facing a certain drubbing. Then, at the last minute, he had a great idea. Inviting people to quasi-legally loot a popular electronics-and-appliances chain of shops would be sure…

“I am filled with my country”

Before Julio Coco. Before Irene Saez, and El Conde del Guácharo, and Luis Chataing. Before Hugo Chávez himself, there was Renny. Renny Ottolina was the ultimate political outsider. A cross between Ed Sullivan and Jon Stewart, Renny was a fixture in Venezuelan TV for much of the 1960s and 1970s. In the middle of that decade,…

Eulogio, Venezuela’s mighty oil Czar

On Tuesday evening, President Nicolás Maduro announced what in revolutionary newspeak is referred to as a sacudón (shake-up), otherwise known to the rest of the globe as cabinet reshuffle. The most noteworthy replacement happened in the Ministry of the Popular Power for Petroleum and Mining. Eulogio Del Pino, who is, and will continue to be, the chief of state oil company PDVSA, will be taking…

BCV: Who needs numbers when you have a well-dressed waitstaff?

Somewhere between not publishing official economic data and overseeing a banknote printing frenzy on steroids, Venezuela’s Central Bank (BCV) still finds time for the mundane. According to this tweet from Bloomberg News correspondent Nathan Crooks, our maximum monetary authority just announced an open tender for the procurement of (and I’m not making this up) tuxedos for waiters. As in,…

Paranoid much?

Want to make Rafael Ramirez really uncomfortable? Start talking about the need for a Transitional Government, no matter what the context. The United Nations Security Council expressed support for Syria mediation efforts on Monday, but in a rare move Venezuela dissociated itself from references in the statement to any mentions of political transition and or transitional…