Monthly Archives: July 2010

Just in those 8 months, nearly $2 billion worth of food paid for by PDVSA failed to reach Venezuelans’ dinner tables for one reason or another. The bulk of that money appears to have been quite simply stolen. The losses … Continue reading →

For this exercise, assume: You have a $28 million budget for transport. The maximum payload of the Boeing 777 you’re using is 102 tons.  The distance between Buenos Aires and Caracas is 5086 km. The marginal cost (in terms of … Continue reading →

Ever notice how chavismo’s instinct, when facing a clear policy failure, is always to see how they can patch it up? Take SITME – the Central Bank’s baroquely controlled alternative to the just-as-baroquely-controlled CADIVI foreign exchange control system. SITME amounts … Continue reading →

The kicker is that your bank has to document every step of that operation to the Central Bank, which is thereby empowered to effectively control the implicit price you pay for each dollar, and the total amounts involved. That, as … Continue reading →

It had to come to this. The renationalized SIDOR Steelmaker has started hitting up the Central Bank for emergency loans. The BsF.2 billion bailout announced today is a throwback to the insane economic policies of the 1970s and 80s, when Venezuela … Continue reading →

As you see the opposing team running, ball-in-hand, towards your goal, you could be forgiven for concluding that somehow, in the last few minutes, the game you were playing had changed. You may still be wearing soccer uniforms, there may … Continue reading →

Funny how these things work. When you’ve decided that the spat with the Cardinal is a losing strategy because it reminds voters that we’re headed for Communism, and you engender an international crisis to change the topic, the last thing you … Continue reading →

Chávez or Uribe-Bush? That, in the chavista playbook, is the issue… It’s clear now that, from a framing point of view, Uribe’s decision to go all Last-of-the-Mohicans on us has been a godsend to chavismo. In speech after speech, chavistas … Continue reading →

It’s a follow-up to a previous article in which he bashed Stone’s documentary slash love poem to Hugo Chávez.  One month ago, I incurred the wrath of Oliver Stone for stating the obvious in an article I wrote:  his new movie South … Continue reading →

Forget spending time with the family, the only right answer is: going to a swearing-in ceremony for the PSUV in a government-owned stadium, and have the ceremony force-fed to the entire country. That’s what happened yesterday. Hugo Chávez presided over … Continue reading →

It’s been brought to my attention that it’s really confusing if I write under my real name in some places and under my nickname (Quico) in others. So, to avoid confusion, I’ve decided to re-brand my byline here as "Francisco Toro". … Continue reading →

Because, from a Venezuelan point of view, what we see on our Western border is a racketeering mob given carte blanche to do its worst. As Juan Carlos Zapata shows vividly in his under-rated, under-read book on his hometown, Guasdualito, nothing … Continue reading →

I think Colombia did a poor job today, and I think the Venezuelan opposition should come out and blast them for it. The opposition needs to side with the people, those who live on the border, those who benefit from … Continue reading →

This is the transcript of Venezuelan ambassador to OAS Roy Chaderton’s response to Colombia’s detailed, extensively documented allegations of Venezuelan collusion with Colombian narco-guerrilla rebel groups: Nyaaaaaaaaaaa nyaaaaaaaa I’m-not-listening-to-you-nyaaaaaaaanyaaaa nyaaaaa not listening not listening  nyaaaaaaaaa nyaaaaaaaaaaa not listening not listening  nyaaaaaaaa … Continue reading →

A chavista tragedy in three acts. Act 1: 2,046 new school teachers, with a specialization in "Cultural Development" (whatever that is), graduate under a government-sponsored program. Good for them, I guess. Act 2: Hugo Chávez goes to the graduation and forces … Continue reading →