Monthly Archives: September 2011

It’s crazy numbers day at Caracas Chronicles

Posted on September 30, 2011 by

So I realize it’s Friday night and nobody’s reading blogs right now, but I couldn’t let this item pass un-commented… Venezuelan oil firm to inject $45 billion into refineries Venezuela’s state owned oil company, PDVSA, announced it will invest $45 … Continue reading →

Posted in Oil | 58 Comments

Math Fail

Posted on September 29, 2011 by

So, according to El Mundo, Venezuela spends some $3 million per day on diesel for electrical generation, since 200,000 barrels of the stuff is being devoted to thermoelectric plants every day. Right. Now, let’s puzzle this one through. Crude oil … Continue reading →

Posted in In Other News | 42 Comments

Global Barrel of Laughs

Posted on September 28, 2011 by

If you don’t already check Setty’s blog compulsively, here’s another reason to. Setty’s especially good at ferreting out online material that ought to be getting much more exposure than it does, and this one’s a real find: a three part … Continue reading →

Posted in International, Oil | Tagged | 27 Comments

El Tigre and the opposition mononeuron

Posted on September 27, 2011 by

Over on the Spanish site, Raul Aular bucks Caracas Chronicles’s anti-dinosaur orthodoxy with a post making the case for Eduardo Fernández’s candidacy. It’s a neat piece of conventional wisdom-shredding, and makes a cogent case for bumping Fernández up from No … Continue reading →

Posted in Primaries | Tagged | 95 Comments

The Red Apertura and the forgotten art of disarming atomic bombs

Posted on September 26, 2011 by

Here’s a factoid you’d do well to squirrel away: through a crazy quirk of geology, there’s more recoverable oil under Southern Guárico, Anzoátegui and Monagas States than anywhere else in the world. 296 billion barrels or so. At current prices, … Continue reading →

Posted in Oil | 77 Comments

The Emperor has no clothes

Posted on September 23, 2011 by

The saddest thing about the memos that Venezuela’s ministers sent to Hugo Chávez while he was convalescing in Havanna?

Posted in Chavez's mental health, Chavismo | Tagged | 62 Comments

Setty takes me to Scam Academy

Posted on September 23, 2011 by

Oh man I laughed with this one. Arevenca’s scam is too baroque to summarize here: let’s just say that they make Ovarb look like Lloyd’s of London. Be sure to read Setty’s hilarious fisking of this whole preposterous affair. For now, … Continue reading →

Posted in Corruption | Tagged , | 53 Comments

Minister of the People’s Power for Trash Talking About Housing

Posted on September 22, 2011 by

Today, housing minister Ricardo Molina called together a bunch of media for a ceremony in Táchira to deliver 48 new homes. Forty eight! Except, as Julio Borges keeps reminding us, Chávez promised 150,000 new homes this year. That works out … Continue reading →

Posted in The Economy | Tagged | 13 Comments

Winning, yet losing

Posted on September 22, 2011 by

I’m not feeling too optimistic about the whole Leopoldo López saga. Last week, the Interamerican Court for Human Rights decided that López had been unfairly barred from running in Venezuela’s elections. In a binding decision, it ordered Venezuela’s institutions to … Continue reading →

Posted in Leopoldo López | 42 Comments

Machado stirs up the right-winger in me

Posted on September 22, 2011 by

Maria Corina Machado gave a really good speech yesterday on the issue of crime. I mouth off in the Spanish site.

Posted in María Corina Machado | 28 Comments

¡Que Ovarbaridad!

Posted on September 21, 2011 by

What do you call a firm that had existed for less than three months when it landed a $252 million contract to sell a PDVSA-subsidiary (Bariven) equipment that usually sells for $112 million? A firm whose sole legal representative gives … Continue reading →

Posted in Corruption, Oil | Tagged | 72 Comments

Nine Years

Posted on September 20, 2011 by

On September 20th, 2002, the very first Caracas Chronicles post hit the interwebs. Today, just like back then, …the slow-motion train-wreck that is Venezuela under Chávez is full of little, slightly absurd side-shows, newspaper stories that teeter on the border … Continue reading →

Posted in History, In Other News | Tagged | 77 Comments

Not that there’s anything wrong with that…

Posted on September 19, 2011 by

Just when you thought there weren’t any rhetorical depths left for chavismo to plumb, we get this: “Miranda deserves a governor with a wife and daughter.” -Elías Jaua Yup, Jaua’s going there: the new stage of the anti-Henrique Capriles campaign … Continue reading →

Posted in Henrique Capriles | 58 Comments

Bs.564 million, down the toilet

Posted on September 19, 2011 by

On Saturday, Chávez announced another Bs.564 million rescue to try to plug the neverending financial shortfalls facing the Nationalized Guayana industries. There’s enough candy for everyone in that piñata: Alcasa gets some, Bauxilum gets some, Venalum too, and Ferrominera and Sidor get … Continue reading →

Posted in The Economy | Tagged , , | 13 Comments

Electric Kool Aid Acid Guiso

Posted on September 18, 2011 by

You remember Chávez’s Electrical Emergency Decree, right? Signed during the blackout-prone days of early 2010, it allowed state agencies to circumvent normal public sector procurement processes to obtain new generating equipment. Ever wonder what happened with that? Well, thanks to … Continue reading →

Posted in Corruption, Electric Crisis | Tagged | 29 Comments