The economic armaggedon Venezuela is undergoing gives the opposition a golden opportunity to break myths and lay the groundwork for the Venezuela of the future. Sadly, and barring a few exceptions, I don’t see the opposition establishing a succesful narrative yet. Here are two examples. Yesterday, opposition legislator Julio Borges posed 10 questions for Maduro, along…
Ahhh…the lazy days of Venezuelan summer. Perfect for strolling through streets perfumed of sun-ripened mangoes, whistling to the Efe ice cream song on balmy Friday afternoons…and, if you’re Diosdado Cabello, trying your hand at some good old political persecution. With two weeks left before the National Assembly goes on summer recess, MUD politicians busy figuring out…
The substance of the accusations being brought 15-years after the fact against opposition leader Leopoldo López don’t merit very much comment, other than to note that that guy must really be squeaky clean if the only thing chavismo could find to charge him for happened during the Clinton administration. Setting that aside, what really gets me is the catastrophic absence…
As public attention has shifted again to Chávez’s health, the succesful opposition primary still has some unresolved issues. Results in the two most important municipalities in Caracas (Libertador & Sucre) gave narrow victories for Ismael Garcia and Juan Carlos Caldera, both endorsed by Henrique Capriles Radonski. Both margins of victory were below 1 %. Both runner-ups,…
Ibsen Martínez is livid. A-rrecho, with capital A. And when Ibsen is mad at someone, you better pull out a dictionary. His latest is a scorching take-down of Carlos Ocariz and Juan Carlos Caldera. (Side note: Yes, Ibsen, it’s Juan Carlos, not Juan José; Google is your friend, fact-checking is your ally.) In a lengthy…
Tomorrow, Miranda Governor Henrique Capriles will officially launch his campaign for the opposition’s Presidential nomination. Flimsy phone-polls and chutzpah-filled, self-proclaimed surge claims notwithstanding, he continues to be the front runner. It’s the job of bloggers to sit in the sidelines and throw peanuts at everyone and anyone who doesn’t do what we want them to,…
There are two topics I normally steer away from: Wikileaks, and Eva Golinger. The former, because it is essentially a boatload of gossip, and people fascinated by it glibly ignore the fact that these are private documents (probably) illegally obtained. I generally have a hard time getting past the ick factor. The latter I steer…
Caracas Chronicles 