Caracas Chronicles

Yesterday was International Breast Cancer Day. Besides some politicians taking some hilariously inappropriate pictures, it’s nice seeing how the world can gather behind a common problem. Amazing how those are the issues in the normal world. But well.

Prisons break

I remember listening to a thusly titled Bacalao Men song, and thinking it was funny. But nothing has taken me farther from laughing than Carlos Hernández’s piece yesterday. In short, prison riots in Táchira reached a point where the pranes hired notoriously convicted cannibal Dorangel Vargas to help them butcher and cook some fellow inmates, which were then force-fed to others. Worse yet, to my understanding, this isn’t even the only case of prison cannibalism this year. If that wasn’t enough, it seems that prisons have been found to have mass graves. Of course, there’s nothing near to an official death count on Venezuelan prisons. A lo que hemos llegado does not begin to cover it.

Los que se quedan, los que se van

And I don’t mean Maiquetía right now. I mean the 32.000 excess prisoners we have as of now. And the more than 100 of them who are political prisoners. That’s why it’s amazing to me that Manuel Rosales came back, so much so that he got a house arrest measure. Lucky him, he won’t get eaten. But we do have a bright side (drumroll, please): Pancho is out! That’s right, Francisco Márquez is thankfully out of prison and on his way back to the U.S. He’s exiled, but at least he’ll be all right.

Where’s my money, man?

Sure, we know that we’re close to a default. And we’re starting to understand why our oil reserves won’t get us out. But the appalling thing is a tie between the fact that Conindustria President said that our industries are working at 35% of their capacity and that the AN’s comptroller commission said that PDVSA has embezzled 11 billion dollars, of which no trace or explanation can be found. That’s probably why even though products have begun to appear, people can by no means afford them. And how does the government respond? Well, Eulogio del Pino chose sueing Rafael Poleo for saying the truth in public, and Ricardo Molina threatened anyone who put down their signatures for the RR to “forget about the CLAPs”. Are you there, Mao? It’s me, Nicolás.

Law, health and politics

The Executive Branch’s own Monica Lewinsky, the Supreme Tribunal of Justice, has been once again summoned for some senseless, useless work. This time, Rafael Ramírez asked them to annul an investigation the National Assembly’s doing on him. Mind you, this is the guy who represents us before the UN.
And last, but far from least, we have the story of the Maracay Hospital doctors who were fired for taking in much-needed donations. Doctors from Mérida showed their solidarity towards them. God knows what awaits them all.