The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has made it crystal clear: Venezuela could lose much of its aerial connectivity because of the large debt the government has with several international air carriers. But Economic VP/Oil Minister/PDVSA Chairman (and apparently an international air travel expert as well) Rafael Ramírez … disagrees. “No one is leaving the country. (The…
Isolation has become the keyword in Venezuela: the heavy debt owed by the government to foreign companies, from airlines to credit card companies and any number of service providers are causing serious problems to both the country’s economy and its reputation. The telecom sector is no different, as national postal service Ipostel has put on hold all…
There are alternatives to oil … There’s electricity in solar and wind, and electric cars. We can begin to do workarounds, albeit not rapidly, but over time we can work around and find alternative energy. But there is no alternative to water. It’s either there or it’s not. Edward Burtynsky Last week, the Environmental Minister Miguel…
One of the things few of our politicians talk about is how to transform our slums into engines of growth. Sure, we talk about the barrios a lot – mostly about how politicians don’t go up the hillside shanties that dot Caracas (they do), but have we thought about a practical approach to solving their…
Mobile Number Portability (MNP) – the ability to change carriers without having to change your phone number – is becoming a hot topic of debate all over the world. In Latin America, several countries have already implemented this regulation, and many more are well on their way to doing so. This is particularly important for…
Now that we are done with the introductions and the sappy posts, let us get down to business. I came across this viral article from the Washington Post that describes the hardships endured by sports journalists in their hotels while covering the Sochi Olympics. The tweets and pictures show unfinished facilities, incompetent personnel, pictures of Putin on…
Bikers in Venezuela – locally known as “motorizados” – are a fascinating subculture. Going from motopirueteros to mototaxis to messengers, they are a definitive part of the Venezuelan urban ecosystem, albeit one not held in very high esteem. To many, motorizados are a big, emotionally charged problem. My experiences with motorizados have been bittersweet. My side…
In recent days, passengers of flights by Venezuelan air carrier RAVSA, better known as La Venezolana faced long delays. Really, really long delays. As other airlines started to help out and the government began getting involved, rumours over the fact that company is now operating with only one aircraft sound kinda feasible. Over the years…
On the heels of overseeing the collapse of a crane in one of Brazil’s new World Cup stadiums, the Brazilian company Odebrecht continues to wreak havoc in construction sites all over the continent. This time, armageddon happened in the future Las Mercedes station of the Caracas Metro, as the video shows. I guess when you’re…
Reading this story about how close we are to a collapse in our ports, about how there are 434 thousand tons of food waiting to be unloaded, about how there aren’t enough trucks to haul all this stuff around, and about how dock workers are going to be asked to work on Sundays, makes me…
Since its expropiation by the government almost two years ago, shipping company Conferry (which connects Margarita and Coche Islands with the mainland) has not lived up to its “New Conferry” billing. Travellers wait for hours inside Conferry’s terminal in Puerto La Cruz, with only a tent for cover. As most of the fleet lacks maintenance,…
I’ve written before about the State-owned Venetur hotel chain, but thanks to this report from Peru’s Panamericana TV, we can see the current conditions inside one of its five-star hotels: Puerto La Cruz’s Maremares. As the Peruvian football team is staying there for its World Cup qualifier against Venezuela on Tuesday night, the TV crew…
The board of the Enrique Tejera Hospital in Valencia will now formally allow relatives of patients to bring hammocks, so they can sleep inside its premises at night. Even if the hospital’s infrastructure is in deplorable conditions, some of its visitors prefer to stay the night there anyway. But their personal security isn’t guaranteed. As…
An excellent article from El Nacional on the high cost of building power plants in Venezuela. Because the government has basically sworn off procurement auctions, and instead resorts to buying stuff “from the rack,” corruption is rife. The money quote: “The general norm, says [industry expert] Aguilar, is for combined cycle plants to cost somehwere…
Just four months before the 8-D local elections, the central government has suddenly discovered there’s total traffic chaos in Caracas and now wants to do something about it. Ground Transportation Minister Haiman El Troudi made public this week the “Mobility Plan for Caracas”. During his presentation, El-Troudi was open to apply traffic restriction measures, like…
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