Chavismo Kicks the Ill When They’re Down
What does a day looking for medicine look like? It looks like an authoritarian game of ignominy and frontal abuse.
Life
Orinoco Mining Arc Is Explodin’, Violence Flarin’, Bullets Loadin’
After the Tumeremo massacre, on October 14, we know for a fact that the ELN operates in Venezuelan territory. But the ecocide, human trafficking, slavery and “mysterious” disappearances started in 2016, with the Orinoco Mining Arc's decree.
Die Wende: From East Germany to Post-Chavista Venezuela
After the fall of the DDR, Germans sought to turn tragedy into remembrance. Perhaps, when chavismo is over, because it will be, we can take a page from the Germans’ book and adapt the idea to build the Post-Chavista Museum we’ll need so it never happens again.
I Saw Kids Fainting from Hunger in the Classroom, So I Decided to Do Something About It
Millions of Venezuelans are facing malnutrition. I know I can’t fix the entire problem. But, together with a couple dozen volunteers, we can help a few hundred at-risk young people and retirees beat acute hunger. So we do.
Pretty Please, Mr. Mass Murderer, Could You Leave the Country, If It’s Not Too Much Trouble?
Colombia’s vicious ELN guerrilla kills Venezuelan soldiers...and Venezuela’s Defense Minister treats them like they’re the Godfather.
Before Chávez, Eight Out of Nine Venezuelans Had Regular Access to Water. Today: One in Five
Despite the country’s huge freshwater reserves, only 18% of Venezuelans have regular access to water. Who doesn’t have trouble finding it? Mosquitoes... when the time comes to lay eggs.
Declawing Gaita: How Protest Music Disappeared from Zulia’s Airwaves
Venezuela’s Western state of Zulia has a long and proud tradition of protest music: gaiteros have always raised their voices against injustice. But under growing pressure from the government, radio stations no longer dare to air it.
The One about John Galt in Los Llanos
In today’s Wall Street Journal, Kejal Vyas and Carlos Becerra have a brutal, engrossing feature about what happens to a small community in Portuguesa, when the government seizes the assets of a big local employer, and replaces it with nothing.
Crisis Puts Little Leaguers’ Big Dreams Cruelly Out of Reach
For kids in Venezuela’s hard-scrabble areas, it used to be the dream: get noticed by a pro scout and leave the barrio behind for the Big Leagues. But try as they might to hang on to the dream, the crisis is wringing the hope out of a new generation of peloteros.
In Buttoned-Down Mérida, Despair Sets Off a Wave of Suicides
Suicides are spreading across Venezuela: the latest iteration of a comprehensive public health crisis. In the Andean state of Mérida, with its more reserved culture, the problem is at its worst.
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