The Book
In praise of Blogging the Revolution
“Caracas Chronicles has been an indispensable source of lucidity and perspective in these turbulent times in Venezuela. Toro and Nagel have been right on target, without pretending to be ludicrously impartial; they have been able to rise above polarization, trying hard to make sense of an often implausible reality. Blogging the Revolution shows them at their best. If you are not already a fan, you will become one.”
- Francisco J. Monaldi, RFK Visiting Professor at Harvard Kennedy School and Director, Center on Energy at IESA in Caracas.Recent Comments
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Monthly Archives: March 2011
Carlos Escarrá: Human Rights Hero
You. Cannot. Make this shit up.
New media is all you need
Last Sunday, Setty informed us that an important pipeline carrying natural gas from Colombia to Venezuela was bombed, possibly by the FARC. He said: “It’s a big deal for Venezuelan electricity consumers, who have come to depend on natural-gas-fired power plants. … Continue reading
… and then there were none
Yesterday, chavista muckracker Alberto Nolia called for Henrique Capriles, governor or Miranda and Venezuela’s most popular opposition politician, to be disqualified from running in the 2012 elections. PSUV strongman Diosdado Cabello, the man Capriles defeated in 2008, is calling for … Continue reading
Reshuffling Your Peru Stereotypes
Over in Spanish, Raúl discusses the shifting meaning of Peruvianity.
Grimly Funny: Trip Advisor Caracas
So, a spell of weekend procrastination took me to Trip Advisor’s Caracas Hotel pages and… well, it really is an excellent way to waste half an hour. Behold the gringos utterly baffled by multiple exchange rates and the resulting, batshit … Continue reading
Chávez and Gaddafi: The Axis of Unpaganda
After initially dithering, Hugo Chávez has now decisively taken sides in the rhetorical contest between Muamar Gaddafi and the Sane World. In the face of what is now surely overwhelming evidence from dozens of journalists (some of whose salaries he … Continue reading
Development is a state of mind
“In this country, GDP per capita could hit $20,000 per year, and people would still think like backwards Latin American assholes.” The words from my Chilean friend shocked me. We were in the middle of a sophisticated, expensive meal in … Continue reading
Posted in Society
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Candidate watch (updated)
We know Oswaldo Álvarez Paz is going to be competing in the opposition’s primary. We also know that Antonio Ledezma is gunning for it as well. In fact, there he is today, pleading for Un Nuevo Tiempo’s support. But what about … Continue reading
Dog-bites-man Chronicles
The BBC is shocked, shocked that in Cuba things don’t work. The New York Times is appalled, appalled that there is corruption at the highest levels of the petro-state. AFP shows its leftie bent, managing to weave a glowing headline … Continue reading
STOP SHOUTING!
(Note: The following guest post, by longtime reader and fellow blogger Roberto Silvers, is an open letter offering some free political advice for Venezuela’s parliamentary opposition) by Roberto Silvers 23 March 2011 (Caracas) Honorable Opposition Deputies of the National Assembly of … Continue reading
The Targetting vs. Universality Debate
A key issue any future opposition government is going to have to deal with is a very old one in First World social policy, but one barely talked about in our public sphere: should the government extend new social benefits … Continue reading
Off-his-meds Chronicles (updated)
“It wouldn’t be strange to find out that Mars had a civilization, but then perhaps capitalism came, imperialism came, and laid the planet to waste.” Hugo Chávez today, showing that, on the Crazy Autocrat scale, from 0 to 1,000, he’s … Continue reading
What do we stand for?
Este post está disponible en español. Venezuela’s National Assembly, our playhouse of populist political theater, sometimes – once in a blue moon – has to actually legislate. One of the issues currently being debated is a Reform of the Nourishment … Continue reading
A fundamental unseriousness
If it had the slightest interest in such things, chavismo could build an honest, cogent, powerful case against international intervention in Libya. It could point out the thicket of contradictions that has led the United States to, at once, attack … Continue reading
How not to write a poll question
Over on the Spanish side we tut-tut Alfredo Keller’s question-writing skills…but still go on to pick out some of his results.
