The Looking Glass Revolution
Quico says: For such a familiar object, there’s something quite bizarre about a mirror, that strange device that seems to represent reality “as it really is” while quietly...
Chronicle of a Devaluation Foretold
Quico says: So, as I mentioned, in the middle-class-to-escualidón circles I tend to frequent in Caracas, Cadivi has become a constant, ever-present worry, a universal obsession. Everyone you...
No Hay Material
Ask anyone at all and they’ll tell you: hands down, the three most feared words in Venezuela’s bureaucratic vocabulary are “there’s no material.” It’s a kind of code...
Striking Oil in Terrazas del Avila
Quico says: My arrival in Caracas seems to have coincided with Milk’s. Everyone was real happy about that. It was all UHT, no fresh stuff, but I guess...
Bring Back the Maisto Doctrine!
Quico says: So, wondering why posting’s been so light recently? Here’s the deal: I spent the last three weeks in Caracas. Elementary paranoia kept me from disclosing as...
The foreign correspondent's POV
Katy says: Posting will be light in the next few days. Quico is traveling and I’m full of work and family duties. But friend and all-too-infrequent poster Lucía...
Chávez for Spaniards
Quico says: Julio Rivas Pita, the man-on-the-ground here for Spain’s El Mundo, is running extracts from his upcoming book, Chávez para Españoles, in a new blog. His latest...
English court OKs partial privatization of PDVSA
Quico says: So, it turns out English courts have no jurisdiction over the PDVSA/ExxonMobil pissing match. They’ve just lifted the preliminary asset freeze on PDVSA, handing chavismo a...
Hello, fat man!
Katy says: Every Monday I get in my inbox the abridged transcript from the previous day’s political reality show, “Hello, Mr. President!” While I wouldn’t be caught dead...
The French Dieterich
Quico says: I’m starting to think of Bernard Henri-Lévy as the French Heinz Dieterich: a writer who combines deep insights with flashes of baffling idiocy in seemingly random...
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