Caracas Chronicles

Quico says: In the Guardian today, Rory Carroll manages the impossible: getting a major first world paper to buckle down and give detailed attention to Chávez’s authoritarian drift. No cutesy hook hung around Miss Venezuela, no quirky angle with El Vergatario. Not even a clear news hook. No bullshit at all. Chávez’s drift towards authoritarianism is the story.

Well halle-friggin’-lujah….

Listen, lets get real. Stories like this one are always going to be rare. When they appear, they’re never going to generate the kind of torrent of click-throughs that you get whenever Chávez does that thing he does and starts decreeing that underwear must be changed every half hour and worn on the outside, so they can check.

Carroll’s story isn’t sexy. Its forlornly imprisoned generals and its exquisite neoscholastic distinctions between imperfect democracies and authoritarian regimes with democratic characteristics won’t send you rushing to twitter the link. Like Venezuelan reality, the whole thing is just grim.

Nobody likes grim.

But, more and more, stories like this are vital.