Caracas Chronicles

In a Washington Post OpEd, Juan Guaidó says he’s ready to take on the role of President to lead a transition, but calls on the people and the Armed Forces to enforce the Constitution.

National Assembly Speaker Juan Guaidó’s Wikipedia page became the battlefield in an epic “edit war” and the government responded by having CANTV, the dominant ISP, block all of Wikipedia.

Dictatorships are hard but brittle: sometimes you hit them 100 times and never see a crack, then at the 101st blow they split right open. So is Juan Guaidó delivering the 101st blow? Or the 23rd?

Jesús Soto died 14 years ago today. His endlessly photographed Esfera de Caracas spent years in storage. How did it end up in its glorious location, right by the Parque del Este?

During a politically convulsed weekend, a blackout leaves one of Caracas’ biggest hospitals without electricity for hours, causing several deaths and highlighting—for the millionth time—the urgent need for political change in the country.

While Maduro was being illegitimately “sworn in” as the “President” of Venezuela for the next six years, a majority of OAS member states officially refused to recognize the legitimacy of his new term. What does it mean?

What’s Ariana’s crime? Having a family member thought to be plotting against the government. A new human rights low.

Confusion is rife over what exactly National Assembly Speaker Guaidó really said at today’s “Cabildo” assembly. No, he did not proclaim himself president. Yes, he said he’s ready to do so. Soon. And called for protests.

On the day of his “inauguration” the streets around the TSJ weren’t even half full. Caracas traffic didn’t collapse because of hundreds of buses, like we saw during chavismo’s golden years. Some people were honest about being there for the free food, others weren’t sure about questions of legitimacy.

The atmosphere was electric at a session that showed only Bolivia, Nicaragua and a dwindling band of Caribbean microstates remain on Maduro’s side.

Newsflash: The National Assembly was shut down. Years ago. It’s just that the government, in an inspired bit of next-generation authoritarianism, never told us.

Year after year the opposition stages symbolic fights that show it hasn’t really digested the reality of the National Assembly’s complete powerlessness.

Rhetoric aside, what has the Maduro Era done to Venezuelans’ livelihoods? A deep dive into the numbers behind a calamity.

As Nicolás approaches his self-proclamation, the international sphere and internal political actors make some pretty relevant moves,

The government’s spent years covering official data on Venezuela’s martyred economy. But there are alternatives out there. Here’s a guided tour.

January 10th creates a unique situation that calls for a political solution, not a Constitutional one. What is needed now is for the National Assembly, as a legitimate power, to step up.

On Thursday, Nicolás Maduro’s 2013-2019 term expires. By no stretch of the imagination will he be a lawful president after that date.

The shelter of the Middle of The World, in Ecuador hosts a Christmas dinner for Venezuelan walkers in need. We get a first-hand view, and a taste of its hallacas.

When a foreign journalist gets arrested and sent to Venezuela's notorious El Helicoide prison, it's big news. So why not more of a ruckus over Billy Six? Because when you're German, and far right, things get tricky.

Raw sewage, no supplies, no doctors: in conditions like these, a hospital is just a building. But people have no place else to go.

One study shows that elections often create short-term stability problems for dictatorial regimes, but those that ride out the electoral wave end up even more entrenched than before.

Chavismo may have destroyed the country, but it also controls the means of exiting it. Come along with one medical student on quest through Venezuela's dystopian passport bureaucracy.

2018 was the year when Venezuelan traditional migratory patterns were altered: It became the country of origin in the Americas with the highest numbers of displaced people. Check out the key milestones in what became the year of Venezuelan migration.

The fourth and final installment of our 2018 kaleidoscope is here. What did the last three months of the year leave us?