Caracas Chronicles

This morning, President Chávez promised an exhaustive investigation into the causes of last night’s fatal blast at Amuay Refinery. The sun hasn’t even set yet, and that investigation is already exhausted: the Paraguana Refining Complex’s Head of Refining has already ruled out deferred maintenance as contributing in any way to the accident. So, it’s good to see nobody is prejudging any outcomes then.

Then, with commendable lack of irony, he boasts of the excellent fire-control system the refinery is “in the process of installing.”

Well, that’s a relief…