Francisco Toro

Quico Toro is the founder of Caracas Chronicles.

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Now they're making me mad!

Quico says: Some bits of rampant revolutionary idiocy hit closer to home than others, and for me, few hit closer than this one: chavismo wants to drive The...

Francisco Toro

Those evil exporters

Katy says: Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez announced yesterday that he was nationalizing the cement industry, “no matter the cost.” With no previous warning, he gave the order on...

Francisco Toro

Cadivi Hassles at Maiquetía

Quico says: So there’s a rumor going around that people are getting asked to produce receipts and stuff at Maiquetía when they fly back into the country after...

Francisco Toro

Godzilla vs. Bambi

Quico says: So, not long ago, the revolution’s favorite “economist”, Mark Weisbrot, published a rebuttal of all the main points in Francisco Rodríguez’s by-now famous Foreign Affairs piece...

Francisco Toro

The Looking Glass Revolution

Quico says: For such a familiar object, there’s something quite bizarre about a mirror, that strange device that seems to represent reality “as it really is” while quietly...

Francisco Toro

Chronicle of a Devaluation Foretold

Quico says: So, as I mentioned, in the middle-class-to-escualidón circles I tend to frequent in Caracas, Cadivi has become a constant, ever-present worry, a universal obsession. Everyone you...

Francisco Toro

No Hay Material

Ask anyone at all and they’ll tell you: hands down, the three most feared words in Venezuela’s bureaucratic vocabulary are “there’s no material.” It’s a kind of code...

Francisco Toro

Bring Back the Maisto Doctrine!

Quico says: So, wondering why posting’s been so light recently? Here’s the deal: I spent the last three weeks in Caracas. Elementary paranoia kept me from disclosing as...

Francisco Toro