Monthly Archives: March 2010

Premise: It goes without saying that NiNis aren’t hanging on the edge of their seats watching every twist and turn of the MUD sausage-making saga. Nor, for that matter, are most Venezuelans, many of whom are probably in Margarita or La … Continue reading →

A tragedy in eight acts: Act I – Contrary to the wishes of sensible, prescient, and highly intelligent voices in the opposition opinion-sphere, the opposition umbrella group decides to ditch the idea of nationwide primaries to select their candidates for … Continue reading →

   "Chamo, lets do an Oswaldo Álvarez Paz week…I mean, why not? It’s Semana Santa, there aren’t going to be any other news…"                 -Quico to Juan, not 48 hours ago The "carefully" "constructed" … Continue reading →

http://www.youtube.com/v/5S3ODF2123U&hl=en_US&fs=1& There’s plenty to sink your teeth into as, thanks to the miracle of YouTube, you watch Oswaldo Álvarez Paz’s 1993 campaign biopic with the (dubious) benefit of hindsight.  The first thing that strikes you is the way political imprisonment weaves … Continue reading →

The recent imprisonment of Oswaldo Alvarez Paz, for nothing more than a snooze-inducing statement of the obvious on Alo, Ciudadano, brought back memories of OAP’s ill-fated attempt at the Presidency back in 1993. Memory is a fickle beast, but in … Continue reading →

Irony can be pretty ironic sometimes. In the very same interview that got Oswaldo Alvarez Paz thrown in jail, he said that he would not seek nomination to the National Assembly because he thought it made more sense to save … Continue reading →

[Note: If you came looking for fresh insights or proper analysis, you might as well move along. This one's just one long rant. Click through only if you're up for that sort of thing.] "Three new political persecutions in one week, … Continue reading →

Today we learned that the webpage of everyone’s favorite satirical rodent, El Chiguire Bipolar, has been hacked. This coincides with a wave of international publicity that has seen the Capybara profiled in, among others, the New York Times. This must … Continue reading →

The largest shareholder in Venezuela’s sole remaining opposition-minded TV channel, Globovisión, has been arrested. (Update: apparently, the court let him out on bail, sort of) His alleged crime? Saying something in Aruba, during a meeting of the Interamerican Press Society, … Continue reading →

As the regime fattens up its list of political prisoners by shoving the president of Globovisión, Guillermo Zuloaga, into jail, you can’t help but reflect on the sheer uselessness of having thrown Alberto Federico Ravell under the bus, the fatuous hopelessness of … Continue reading →

At times, you almost feel bad for Mark Weisbrot, the dean of the dwindling corps of quasi-respectable Chávez apologists in D.C. A few years ago, back when it was just about posible for a lefty with democratic sensibilities to sympathize … Continue reading →

The phrase is Teodoro Petkoff’s. When he penned it, a few years, he was reaching for humor through hyperbole, but as time passes, his words have come to read more and more like a straightforward description of the situation we … Continue reading →

One time Zulia State governor and center-right candidate for the presidency Oswaldo Álvarez Paz will be spending his first night behind bars tonight for what can only be described as thoughtcrime. Backed by professionally conducted investigations and publicly available data on clandestine … Continue reading →

  Why do I have this image in my head of Chávez playing a fiddle somewhere?

Boy, I can’t wait to see the Capybara’s reaction to this.