After his two teenage sons were killed by police officers, Daniel took refuge in repairing torn shoes, in a dying city where oil once meant a great hope. Another moving story by La Vida de Nos.
Daily Briefing
Moral Blockade
Another patient of the JM de los Ríos Children's Hospital died while Maduro approves millions of euros for military equipment. A prison riot in Acarigua 30 prisoners dead and 18 police officers wounded. Guaidó denounced that the ELN launched an attack against Colombian forces from Venezuelan soil. The food basket keeps rising. Both Trinidad and Tobago and Ecuador will apply restrictions for Venezuelan migrants.
Changes in FX Controls When It Doesn’t Matter
Did the exchange controls end, as some have said, when the regime announced the new scheme of mesas de dinero? Here’s the real score (SPOILERS: You still can’t freely exchange currency).
The Great March Blackout Never Really Ended
When chavismo talks about “things returning to normal” regarding energy, it means “normal in Caracas.” Most of the nation suffers daily blackouts that freeze people’s lives, institutions and erodes their minds. This is how you live with a broken infrastructure.
The Distorting Power of Opacity
Depriving the public of the access to accurate and timely information is one of the cornerstones of domination and fear. But in a failed state like Venezuela, even self-proclaimed democrats and international institutions use it for their own ends.
Amnesty International: Crimes Against Humanity Have Been Carried Out in Venezuela
A fifty-page long report published earlier this week by the human rights organization presents strong evidence on extrajudicial executions, disproportionate use of lethal force, and illegal arrests.
Reruns in Norway
Be aware: chavismo will try to use the Norwegian offer to conduct a new round of negotiations that buys it more time, fooling everyone again. The question is if Venezuelans (and the international community) will accept it.how
TIAR and the Use of Force
The National Assembly is trying to make Venezuela return to the Interamerican Treaty of Mutual Assistance, that some have seen as a door to invoke a military intervention. But, does membership of the Pact of Rio change the current legal position?
Previous Posts
When a Failed State Punches You in the Face Every Day
Spending more than 12 hours a day without electric power, carrying tons of gallons of water, walking hundreds of miles due to the lack of transport, and standing in long lines for gas is the daily life of the people of Mérida. A city in the border that has been emptied.
Chronicles of Us, Part 2: Gladys’ World
In her mind, she’s 19, but she has lived for many decades in a hospital by the Orinoco Delta. Abused, abandoned and also the subject of generosity, Gladys is the star of this amazing real life story, by La Vida de Nos.
The Norwegian Talks
Norway has a tradition of neutrality and solid know-how on international negotiations. Now that it joined the foreign efforts to produce a peaceful outcome in Venezuela, what can we expect?
What Game of Thrones Meant to Venezuelans Around the Globe
We use it to share something with friends who leave the country. We watch it searching for answers for our own ceaseless winter. Few people will miss this show as those who live in a country that feels like scorched by a dragon.
Code Pink: the Worst of American Imperialism
The left-wing organization that occupied the Venezuelan Embassy at Washington, D.C. fell into the same trap that motivated the U.S. to support so many coups and dictators: a sense of superiority that’s only colonialist and racist.
Venezuela’s Second City Has Zero Newspapers
Maracaibo's main newspaper, Panorama, stopped publishing its printed edition. Even if it always had a complacent editorial line with past and present governments, it didn't survive the hegemony.
Maduro’s New Cells for Protesters: Shipping Containers
In Barquisimeto, one of the cities most affected by the collapse of the power network, demonstrations against the dictatorship are mercilessly punished. Now, those who fall in the hands of FAES or the National Guard can be jailed inside containers, with no fresh air or sunlight.
People Over Geopolitics
In a piece for The Globe and Mail, former Canadian Ambassador to Venezuela, Ben Rowswell asks the world to put Venezuelans trapped in a dangerous geopolitical board, over international interests.
The Supreme Tribunal Gives Maduro What Venezuelans Took from Him: An...
With a combination of exceptional powers, harassment, jail, and exile, the Maduro government became a dictatorship by ignoring all its obligations to submit the Executive to the control of a Legislative controlled by the opposition since 2015. The Supreme Tribunal has been the main tool to void the legitimate National Assembly of people and functions.
University Education Goes Dark in Zulia
Imagine you can’t graduate and continue with your life’s plans because your university or college has no power most of the time. You are attending only a few lessons under scorching heat. You can’t print a blueprint or run lab tests. That’s life in Maracaibo for university students.
Chronicles of Us, Part 1: Beaten and Detained at 14
He’s epileptic. He was doing nothing. And the police took him because people were protesting somewhere else in Puerto Ordaz. With this photo essay, we start a series of stories of human rights violations documented by La Vida de Nos, a wonderful Venezuelan project of storytelling focused on testimonials.
The Lost Harvest of Chinese Food Plants in Venezuela
It was meant to be the largest rice-processing plant in the continent, providing jobs and infrastructure to Delta Amacuro, one of the least developed states in the country. But now it’s in ruins, it was never finished and later abandoned. A Reuters story unveils the real outcome of Chinese patronage: massive losses for a famished nation.
Pandering to the Imperial Left: The New CEPR Report
The new report by the CEPR, “Economic Sanctions as Collective Punishment: The Case of Venezuela” written by Dr. Jeffrey Sachs and Mark Weisbrot, is generating sympathy for the chavista cause in the liberal media at a critical moment, but it’s already being challenged by the heavyweights.
Venezuelans Abroad Are Now Victims of Political Appropriation
This new open letter to non-Venezuelans draws from the concept of cultural appropriation, to denounce the pattern by which the first-world left shuts down the voices of the human beings affected by the situation in Venezuela, weaponizing it for their own wars.
The Federalist Congress That Bolívar Ignored to Retain His Power
On May 8th, 1817, two legendary leaders of the Independence tried to restore the federal model of the first republican Constitution. But El Libertador used his might to let the project die: he didn’t want to share power.
The Defection That Turned into Exile
One of the most spectacular aspects of the events of February 22nd and February 23rd was the widely broadcasted defection of Venezuelan soldiers into Colombia and Brazil. HRW’s Tamara Taraciuk talked to some of them in Cucuta: they are more than disappointed.
How to Read Venezuela’s Chaotic Power Struggle
Discard political preconceptions. Ignore the ideological noise. Don’t rely on what you see. Here’s what you can do to figure out what happened on April 30th—and its effects—without going crazy.
The Official Rampage Against Venezuelan Media Intensifies
Reporters targeted by security forces, radio station shutdowns, news channels taken off the air and blocking websites have become normal. Maduro's siege against the press is getting worse.
Margarita: Paradise Gone Rack and Ruin
This Venezuelan island, known by many international travelers, struggles to preserve what’s left of its foregone prosperity. The Free Port model needs updating and its dependence on the mainland leaves its people vulnerable to the country’s collapse.
FAO Warns About a Real Possibility of Famine in Venezuela
Six years after awarding Nicolás Maduro’s government for apparently reducing hunger in Venezuela, the UN agency for food security puts Venezuela in a list of countries in high-risk of facing a widespread food crisis.
Dear Codepink Activist, You’re Right
An open, respectful letter to those people who decided it was right to occupy the Venezuelan embassy in Washington D.C. to avoid National Assembly-appointed representatives to work there, by one Venezuelan who’s sincerely making the effort of understanding your point of view.
‘Peace privilege’ Also Means Disgust for Someone Else’s Suffering
After Cristal Palacios shared with us her concept of “peace privilege” to explain the inability to understand Venezuela from the comfort of development, Manuel Llorens takes the cue to propose another dimension of the phenomenon: everyone tends to reduce the contemplation of pain.
48 Hours of Violent Protests Highlight Resilience
May 1st gave Caracas a crowded chavista march and a constellation of anti-regime protests severely repressed. Four young Venezuelans have been killed so far since Tuesday morning. The unrest, again, is nationwide and people look determined to resist.
Yes, Venezuelans in the U.S. Need Temporary Protected Status
While some may say that the U.S. has been vehemently supporting democracy and human rights in our country, Venezuelans believe those considerations can be extended to regularize the migrant population in the U.S.
In Caracas, Comités por la Libertad Start to Work
In areas of Caracas such as Santa Mónica in the south east, and El Paraíso in the west, neighbors have organized to resist on the street since April 30th, following Juan Guaidó’s instructions. This is how they took the upheaval of recent hours.
The (few) Known Facts of April 30th
It was the kind of incredible days we’re used to: at dawn, spectacular and hopeful news; at sunset, confusion and defeat. While night falls, Guaidó appears at the brink of jail and Maduro looks weaker and stronger at once. Let’s try to make sense of this, now.
The Disobedience Operation that Ended Great Colombia
Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela were supposed to form a big, powerful country. That was the original project of Miranda and Bolívar, but it never had real possibilities. On April 30th, 1826, the dream would be over.
Nina’s Vamosbien-o-meter, Vol. III
Caretaker President Guaidó and his team are working hard for the march on May 1st, understanding it’ll be a crucial date. Three months ago, we felt we were going well, then we felt we were going OK but too slow… now, we just feel stuck.
Is It Legal To Be an International Correspondent in Venezuela?
The recent deportation of Swedish reporter Annika H. Rothstein brings attention to the legal status for foreign journalists who want to cover Venezuela. The regime has its excuses to stop foreign eyes to see what’s happening.
The Venezuelan Obsession Fades in Spain
On Sunday, Spain will hold general elections to see if the socialists still have support to rule, but for the first time in years, the outcome of the chavista revolution is not a central issue in the debate between Spanish parties.
