Monthly Archives: March 2011

Carlos Escarrá: Human Rights Hero

Posted on March 31, 2011 by

You. Cannot. Make this shit up.

Posted in Chavismo, Human Rights, International | Tagged , | 31 Comments

New media is all you need

Posted on March 30, 2011 by

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 →

Posted in Electric Crisis, International | Tagged | 12 Comments

… and then there were none

Posted on March 30, 2011 by

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 →

Posted in Opposition, Primaries | Tagged , | 28 Comments

Reshuffling Your Peru Stereotypes

Posted on March 28, 2011 by

Over in Spanish, Raúl discusses the shifting meaning of Peruvianity.

Posted in International | Tagged | 1 Comment

Grimly Funny: Trip Advisor Caracas

Posted on March 28, 2011 by

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 →

Posted in In Other News | Tagged | 41 Comments

Chávez and Gaddafi: The Axis of Unpaganda

Posted on March 27, 2011 by

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 →

Posted in International | Tagged , , | 11 Comments

Development is a state of mind

Posted on March 25, 2011 by

“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 | 74 Comments

Candidate watch (updated)

Posted on March 25, 2011 by

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 →

Posted in Primaries | Tagged | 39 Comments

Dog-bites-man Chronicles

Posted on March 24, 2011 by

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 →

Posted in In Other News | Tagged | 14 Comments

STOP SHOUTING!

Posted on March 24, 2011 by

(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 →

Posted in Opposition | Tagged | 33 Comments

The Targetting vs. Universality Debate

Posted on March 23, 2011 by

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 →

Posted in Conditional Cash Transfers | Tagged | 38 Comments

Off-his-meds Chronicles (updated)

Posted on March 22, 2011 by

“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 →

Posted in Chavismo, In Other News | Tagged | 49 Comments

What do we stand for?

Posted on March 22, 2011 by

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 →

Posted in Opposition, Society | Tagged , | 46 Comments

A fundamental unseriousness

Posted on March 20, 2011 by

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 →

Posted in International | Tagged , | 58 Comments

How not to write a poll question

Posted on March 16, 2011 by

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.

Posted in Opposition | Tagged , | 24 Comments