Caracas Chronicles

Big changes are coming and no one seems to understand how they will work. Wages will be anchored to an unexisting but centralized cryptocurrency, five zeros will be removed from the bolivar and fuel will have a new international price. What does it mean? We’re all in the dark, trying to guess.

In a bizarre, rambling address, President Maduro announced a genuinely weird, heterodox economic adjustment that left Venezuelans at a loss for words.

When Chávez took office in 1999, one dollar was worth 5.6 bolivars. 19 years later, the amount of zeros is so long, it’s confusing. Today, regrettably, we reach the one billion later benchmark.

What happens when you throw a Carlos in Caracas and ask him to pay for a taxi? Chaos, delays, inconveniences, slow data service and everything else caraqueños know to be true, with the extra paranoia that out-of-towners rightfully feel.

Should we participate in a referendum to approve the Constitution drafted by the illegitimate ANC? Is this a matter of tactic or strategy? Is this debate preventing us from seeing other options in the grand scheme of things?

The Venezuelan Center for Disease Classification (CEVECE) was founded in 1955 and for years spearheaded the region’s efforts to develop trustable, comparable and standardized epidemiologic data. Now, its future looks as grim as expected in a country facing the worst health crisis in the continent.

Venezuelan Art students deal with many obstacles: little access to technical resources and supplies, crime, decaying infrastructures, few teachers left, a practically nonexistent industry and no hope of things getting better any time soon. How come there are still people studying art, then?

We took to the streets in order to take a closer look at the motor vehicle census 2018. We didn’t see long lines; but desinformation, political proselytism, confusion and fear of losing the little we have left.

As the healthcare crisis worsens, several reports have come to light regarding the death of 16 children in a Barquisimeto hospital. The deaths are attributed to bacteria serratia marcescens and the negligence of authorities who would rather silence the victims than help prevent more cases.

Several Venezuelan digital news outlets have been under serious cyber-attacks recently and news site El Pitazo was blocked for the third time in a year. Nobody explains the reasons behind the decision.

Isaac López and over a dozen of his neighbors went to jail for protesting in their town square. He still has to show up in court every fifteen days and spend his monthly salary defending himself of a crime he didn’t commit.

Venezuelan military and police forces have become the worst type of authority: bullies with a badge. The government loves them, but society resents them.

The first university in Venezuela was founded in 1721 and officially started functioning as such on this day in 1725. It later became the UCV, the house that, to this day, defeats the shadows.

We interviewed Juan Requesens a few days before he was snatched from home by the government's intelligence police. There's still no information of the young legislator's whereabouts.

The ANC has behaved the way we expected: as an instrument of political control. Nonetheless, will this political monster grow even more powerful against its enemies? Or against itself?

We could argue that there’s a powerful triad keeping the government in power. Decreasing population, money sent in by the diaspora and gubernamental handouts. It seems to be working, but for how long?

Trash is all around us in the fine city of Maracaibo. Mayor Willy Casanova won’t do anything about it, and people don’t know what to do with the trash. Or perhaps they do: burn it.

Enrollments in the military don’t fulfill the quota and soldiers’ salaries are insufficient. Apparently, only a few want to be part of the Venezuelan Armed Forces and participate in the country’s integral development.

NPR’s Planet Money hosts Sarah Gonzalez and Alisa Escarse interviewed Rubén Galindo, CEO of AirTM, and Mila, who used to save her money on sacks of sugar.

“Hell on Earth” is how Maracaibo residents describe the city undergoing a terrible electricity crisis, unthinkable in any other modern nation. And you know what the government will do about it: absolutely nothing.

The witch hunt that’s just starting won’t distinguish between criminals and innocents.

Under CONATEL’s orders, pay-TV carriers were forced to take down Deutsche Welle for broadcasting a documentary on Venezuela. As if this weren’t enough, they dismissed the incident reports as “fake news”.

As the border dispute between Guyana and Venezuela awaits a response from The Hague, the Esequibo struggles with illegal gangs who are violently imposing their will.

Cuba pulled off one of the great intelligence feats of all times: gaining virtual control of a much larger, much richer country without firing a shot. So why did they let Venezuela collapse?