Monthly Archives: January 2011

Boiling it down

Posted on January 31, 2011 by

In Caracas Chronicles en Español CronicasDeCaracas.net: the transition in three bullet points.

Posted in Conditional Cash Transfers, Opposition | 3 Comments

Right Guard?

Posted on January 31, 2011 by

Reading my review of Randy Brewer’s book on  The New Republic, Alejandro Tarre demanded a right of reply. Isaiah Berlin once wrote that, “as an intellectual discipline, it is boring to read our allies or those who coincide with our … Continue reading →

Posted in Opposition | Tagged | 33 Comments

$%*& my Japanese wife says

Posted on January 28, 2011 by

My wife laughed hard at the tragic, yet still unmistakably funny story of the dozens of high-society Venezuelans coming back from a throw-the-house-out-the-window, no-expenses-spared Punta Cana wedding with lobster-induced cholera on the menu. Then, as an item on the Egyptian … Continue reading →

Posted in In Other News, International | 65 Comments

Finding the story in our squalid news

Posted on January 27, 2011 by

One of the things that I find most disappointing about the Venezuelan press is how they frequently miss the important aspects of the stories they pretend to report. Take, for example, this item on a recent opinion poll by respected … Continue reading →

Posted in The Media | 58 Comments

Transitional justice

Posted on January 27, 2011 by

A man makes millions of dollars helping Colombian guerrillas ship cocaine to hungry markets via Venezuela. Or he makes them through bribing financial institutions in order to exempt them from legal problems. Or he makes them by soliciting illegal kickbacks for certain … Continue reading →

Posted in Corruption, Opposition | 20 Comments

A Manifesto for the Spanish-language blog

Posted on January 26, 2011 by

Over on CaracasChronicles-eE.com, Quico just posted an absolutely untranslatable manifesto of what exactly we’re aiming for with the blog in Spanish, filled with Orwell quotes, coños, and vainas. This, however, is going to be the exception. You should expect posts … Continue reading →

Posted in In Other News | 1 Comment

Don’t think of an elephant!

Posted on January 25, 2011 by

Hugo Chávez has a new pet peeve. Whatever you do, do not call him a dictator! Today he showed how much it annoyed him, when he said that if the opposition behaves and stops calling him a dictator, he would be … Continue reading →

Posted in Chavismo | Tagged | 24 Comments

Introducing Caracas Chronicles en Español

Posted on January 25, 2011 by

Almost from the moment this blog launched – all the way back in the pre-YouTube internet Paleozoic of 2002 – people have been asking me when I’ll launch a sister site in Spanish. Today, that old dream is a reality. … Continue reading →

Posted in In Other News | Tagged | 21 Comments

Dismantling Allan Brewer-Carías

Posted on January 24, 2011 by

My review of Allan Brewer-Carías’s simply unreadable brick, Dismantling Democracy in Venezuela, is now up on TNR’s Book Review site. Fun bit: Perhaps Dismantling Democracy in Venezuela should be read not as constitutional analysis, but rather as a kind of archaeology … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Opposition | Tagged | 40 Comments

Enlace Venezuela: Getting Serious About The Day After

Posted on January 23, 2011 by

In this special guest post for 23 de enero, Jose Ramón Morales Arilla announces an exciting initiative to start in on some serious planning for What Comes Next: Today, we’re announcing the launch of Enlace Venezuela, a web-based initiative to … Continue reading →

Posted in Conditional Cash Transfers, Opposition | Tagged | 30 Comments

The early 2012 Jockeying Report

Posted on January 21, 2011 by

They may not be doing it publicly yet, but make no mistake about it: the opposition’s early hopefuls for the 2012 presidential nomination are already quietly but actively jockeying for position. Early polling – and standard, it’s-too-early-for-this-to-mean-anything caveats apply – … Continue reading →

Posted in Primaries | Tagged , | 70 Comments

Deconstructing Giusti

Posted on January 20, 2011 by

Do not miss Setty’s epic post on Luis Giusti and the brewing scandal at Colombian private oil company Alange Energy. It’s compelling and – despite Setty’s best efforts – incendiary. An absolute must read. As I wrote on Setty’s comment … Continue reading →

Posted in International, Oil | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Any Decision You Want, So Long As It’s “Guilty” (Corrected)

Posted on January 20, 2011 by

Brazen violations of due process are a dime a dozen in revolutionary Venezuela, sure, but few can be quite so brazen as the effective judicial kidnapping of National Assembly member-elect Biagio Pilieri. The guy actually faced a full trial in … Continue reading →

Posted in Repression | Tagged | 5 Comments

¡Fuenteovejuna, señor!

Posted on January 19, 2011 by

Geolver Hernández. Luis Castaño. Ray Longaray. José Rafael Márquez Gamboa. Rafael Urdaneta. Luis Román. Jeferies Moreno García. Erwin Pulgar Barrios. Carlos Soto. José María Urdaneta Romero. No need to count’em – that’s 10 people. A few days ago, the local … Continue reading →

Posted in Repression | Tagged , | 20 Comments

Talk about talking

Posted on January 19, 2011 by

As the government starts calling for dialogue, you may get a distinct feeling of déjà vu. After all, isn’t this the exact same thing Chávez did the last time he was looking at horrendous poll numbers? This got me thinking: … Continue reading →

Posted in History, Politics | Tagged | 18 Comments