Some days it seems as though chavismo is coming apart at the seams. Their unhinged responses to the most feeble of slights is a gift to their critics. This weekend we saw the latest incarnation of this disturbing pattern. As our readers know well, last week US President Barack Obama signed into law a bill authorizing…
Opposition legislator Maria Corina Machado will go to the Prosecutor’s Office today to be charged with attempting to kill Nicolás Maduro. She may be imprisoned today. We’ll be live blogging the events as they unfold. Three quick things to start: Her team has put together a list of all the attacks on Maria Corina through the years. It’s…
Tomorrow, opposition leader María Corina Machado will go to the National Prosecutor’s Office to be indicted as an alleged conspirator in a plot to assassinate the President. Hefty charges that, if proven, carry the maximum penalty of 28 years in prison. In any other country, the “if proven” part of this sentence would be the most…
On October 1st, Caracas newspaper Tal Cual announced in an editorial that the paper would run out of newsprint before the end of this month. As the deadline was supposed to end this week, both its workers and what’s left of the media not controlled by the hegemony demanded the central government provide a solution. Last…
The aftermath of the murders of PSUV MP Roberto Serra and his assistant María Herrera last week, along with the discussion on who was behind them and why, has grabbed the attention of the country in the last few days. Here at CC, it is no different. But a side controversy appeared over the weekend, one which indirectly touched…
As Quico wrote, many Venezuelans won’t be aware of yesterday’s stand-off between the authorities and members of a pro-government colectivo unless they saw the events unfold online in real time. No TV station made any attempt to cover it live, and now today’s papers (with few exceptions) will be conditioned by the official description of what…
Good news, everyone! There’s a new military force in town! Meet the Clash Force (Fuerza de Choque)! (It sounds like a Chuck Norris movie). This week’s Official Gazette mentions the creation of this brand new force, which is put under the supervision of the Organizational Strategic Command of the Armed Forces (CEOFANB). Its mission? Fight…
I wonder about Nicolás Maduro sometimes. I mean, it’s easy to dismiss Maduro as insane. The latest from the man who talks to birds, who thinks Chávez was “innoculated” with cancer? Well, the opposition is spreading tropical diseases, and it’s all the media’s fault. Still, barring the possibility that he’s insane, can he really be this…
Last night, HegemonCorp.-owned newspaper El Universal fired cartoonist Rayma Suprani. Why? Because of this… Her work was already being censored ever since the paper changed owners last July, but this was apparently the last straw. El Universal has wasted no time in finding her replacement by announcing an open contest. Elides Rojas, the newsroom chief, wrote…
Wanna know what’s going on in Venezuela? You won’t have it easy. State media newscasts are just propaganda. Private ones kinda report the news, but focus more on infotainment and human interest stories. Newspapers try to fill the void, but many are either getting bought by mysterious people or dealing with the constant lack of newsprint.…
Over the past week, with the story of El Pollo Carvajal’s Aruba narco-escapade, and reports of an obscene dollars-imports-military scam, we have come to understand what we’re up against in Venezuela: drug-trafficking generals. Leave it to a last minute blocking of a U.S. Senate bill to clear things up a little more: we’re actually facing drug-trafficking…
A few months ago, Nicolás Maduro appointed former general Hugo Carvajal to be Consul General of Venezuela to the Dutch island of Aruba. Yesterday, as Carvajal laid low in the island waiting for the Dutch government to approve his position, he was detained. The US had asked the Netherlands to incarcerate and extradite him. Carvajal was head of…
Last Friday was Journalist’s Day (Dia del Periodista) in Venezuela, but this year it came in what is undeniably the most hostile environment for the press in recent memory. With 2014 becoming one of the worst years for journalists, the newsprint shortage crisis still unresolved, and the threat of more legal curbs, journalists are facing acutely…
Last week, the government organized a high-profile conference about what they like to call “the media plot against Venezuela.” This was the usual blame-it-all-on-the-Evil-Empire gig, with a few minor power players and so-called international pundits on hand to bash the usual enemies. It also pointed to a heightened interest in clamping down whatever freedoms are left…
A few days ago 18-year-old Clider Martínez was taken in by the National Guard while protesting in Los Palos Grandes. After being processed he was sent to El Rodeo III, one of Latin America’s most dangerous prisons. Allegedly, Clider got the book thrown at him because he had been caught a few days earlier in one of…
Caracas Chronicles 