Today’s edition of Ciudad Guayana daily Correo del Caroni had terrible news for its readers: its daily edition will cease this Friday, July 31st and the following Friday the paper will become a weekly paper. One of the few independent media outlets in the entire Guayana region, Correo del Caroni has struggled since last year thanks…
“On July 14th three pasta-making factories stopped working. Bread manufacturing could stop in October. The problem in both sectors is the same: lack of wheat. The reason for this is that requirements for importing wheat have not been approved, and the dollars approved have not been paid since last March. There is also scarcity of bottled water, because…
One of the perks of writing the blog is that I get to meet and interact with interesting people I wouldn’t normally associate with – both in the comments section, and outside of it. Case in point: a few months ago I got the chance to spend some time with Carolina Acosta-Alzuru, a professor of Communication Studies…
Have you ever noticed how many pro-government Trending Topics are all over the Venezuelan Twittersphere? Ever wonder how the central government really does that? The folks at NGO IPYS Venezuela recently released two reports that spell out how the hegemony uses the zillions of Twitter accounts belonging to State officials and institutions to both spread its propaganda and attack opponents. The first one,…
While I was in Caracas I got the chance to talk to Ángel Alayón about development. Here is the link. Thanks to Ángel and his team for the opportunity.
The National Telecommunications Commission (CONATEL) has expanded its core duties into supporting the State’s repression apparatus by monitoring what Venezuelans say on social media, among other things. But as CONATEL tries to do too much at once, its workers are feeling the strain. On Wednesday, CONATEL employees organized an impromptu protest right in front of the agency’s main offices to…
Between August and October of last year, eight Twitter users were detained by the Venezuelan intelligence service (SEBIN). To this day, five remain jailed in the Helicoide. Four have plead guilty to minor charges in exchange for lesser sentences and were pressured to change their defense lawyers (from NGO Foro Penal) for public defenders. But how…
One full year after El Universal, one of Venezuela’s oldest and largest newspapers, was bought by HegemonCorp., its opinion pages have been purged, journalists have been fired, its main cartoonist Rayma was unceremoniously dumped and its new editorial line has become insipid. HegemonCorp.’s alleged 120 million dollars takeover has paid off, even at the cost of the…
June 27th was Day of the Journalist in Venezuela and instead of being simply an occasion to celebrate, it was a day to protest the continuous erosion of free press in the nation. Journalists and press workers took the streets on Friday to demand respect for free speech and to demand an end to the…
On Friday night, the motorcade of Sports Minister Pedro Infante was apparently attacked by criminals in the Cota 905. The minister’s eight bodyguards handled the situation, taking cover in a nearby police station until SEBIN reinforcements came to his help. And that was only the start of a bloody and brutal weekend. After a huge gunfight on…
Venezuelan cops don’t have it easy these days: they are either killed in horryfing circunstances, attacked by irregular armed groups or find themselves facing the wrath of the people they’re supposed to protect. So, what advice can be offered to those in charge of keeping us safe, specially when criminal bands have more deadly firepower at…
Sometimes, buying newspapers in mysterious ways or depriving them of their most basic resource to keep running isn’t enough. Sometimes, the hegemony needs a classic newspaper closure. That’s what La Guaira newspaper La Verdad de Vargas went through last Friday, when several local and national government agencies decided to make a visit to its newsroom. Allegedly, the…
Look, I get it: Picking out any one bit of insanity appearing on Venezuelan State Propaganda and singling it out for special opprobium is kind of an artificial exercise. Yet I can’t help but feel that even by the deranged, psychopath-on-ketamine editorial standards of SiBCI, the campaign of character assassination unleashed against former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe González these last few…
Back in April, State broadcaster VTV and weekly political gossip rag Quinto Dia quoted White House spokeman Jim Luers saying that reports that the U.S. is investigating Diosdado Cabello are “totally false”. Days later, El Nacional called the White House to confirm if any Jim Luers worked there. The answer? Nope. This week, El Nacional kept up its search for this Jim…
Barquisimeto’s main newspaper El Impulso has announced that starting May 12th the paper will reduce its daily edition to only 8 pages. In an editorial, the paper explains the reason behind this drastic decision, putting the blame on one culprit: The Alfredo Maneiro Editorial Complex (CEAM), the State-owned provider of newsprint in the nation. The creation…
Caracas Chronicles 