“Mommy, can we get some French fries?” asked my daughter as we drove past the massive granite monolith that is the McDonald’s store of La Castellana in Caracas. “There are no French fries in Venezuela, baby” sentenced my wife. My daughter’s eyes dampened like that was the saddest thing she ever heard. And perhaps it was.…
There’s no doubt about it: The central government has a huge “bachaquero” problem, that is, thousands of people buying regulated goods and reselling them at black market prices to make ends meet. Instead of attacking the roots of this problem, that is, the spectacular price distortions that make waiting in line one of the most lucrative jobs…
Milagros Socorro broke Twitter yesterday with her reporting of a guajiro upheaval in the border town of Sinamaica. The Zuliana journo summarized the story in 26 tweets and then filled in the blanks with an article at Konzapata. Turns out a pissed wayuu crowd raided -as vikings do- the town hall of the Bolivarian Municipality of La…
Have you ever wondered where it all started? Bachaqueo, I mean – standing in line waiting to purchase price-controlled products in order to resell them in the black market. As I learned on my recent trip to Maracaibo, local lore has it that after gasoline smuggling had become a common reality in this border state, bachaqueo was born in a…
“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…
(Former CC intern Rachelle Krygier is back, and is reporting from Caracas.) Venezuelans go to bed not knowing if in the morning they will be able to find, let alone afford, basic staples. Providing for leisure activities for themselves or their families is so far beyond the pale, many have stopped thinking about it. And what…
I recently saw “Inside Out” [If you haven’t seen it, GO NOW!]. The film made me realize that we always talk about the economic crisis, but we rarely talk about what we think and feel during the time we stand in line, in las colas. This is the story of how a simple task became a roller-coaster…
The Japan Times is reporting that exports to Venezuela will no longer be covered by insurance underwritten by Nippon Export and Investment Insurance. Basically, the country has become too insecure to be insured. This means that any Japanese company exporting to Venezuela will have to cover the risk of not getting paid for their shipments…
I left Venezuela yesterday after spending ten days there. I have tons of things I want to write about once I get my thoughts in order, but one particular thing stuck with me. It happened to be the last thing I saw of our country. As I was taking off from a barren, deserted Maiquetía…
Being back in Caracas after many months provides a plethora of opportunities for blogging. And while there is much to say about the big issues, curiously I’ve had numerous conversations about … lightbulbs. The country’s acute scarcity is everywhere, but it’s hard to see if there is no light. And light is definitely missing. Lightbulbs are on…
When writing about Venezuela, one has to juggle with an embarassment of riches – there is so much crap going on, that sometimes it’s hard to select the right story that brings to life the collapsing Venezuelan economy. I think this one does an excellent job. Fusion’s Manuel Rueda went to Mérida to talk to students at the…
In early April, a close relative of mine was looking everywhere for new tires. He hasn’t found anything yet. At least he isn’t the only one caught in this pickle. Car tires are part of the long, long list of stuff that is currently lacking in this country. People are doing the impossible to find them. Some…
On Thursday afternoon, Venezuelans found out how their foreign purchasing power evaporated – quite literally – by the minute, as the US dollar surpassed the 400 bolívares (BsF) mark. This was according to the “coup-plotters/saboteurs” from “Dolar today,” the most widely used web page for Venezuela’s black market exchange rate. Other web pages, such as Lechuga verde or Aguacate verde,…
Venezuela is known for its beautiful women –if we are allowed to say so ourselves. But our high beauty standards are expensive, and no stranger to scarcity. So a negative involuntary consequence –what us economist usually call a “negative externality”- of the current economic crisis is that we are becoming less and less tidy, stylish, and…
On Friday afternoon, my dad sent me a cryptic text: “Anabella. Sábado A Las Ocho. Leche En Polvo. Nuestro Gama. Cédula Tuya y Mami”. (Anabella – Saturday at eight. Powdered milk. Our Gama (local grocery store). Yours and your mother’s ID card day) When he sent that text, my dad was leaving a supermarket that…
Caracas Chronicles 