Caracas Chronicles

PDVSA’s financial statements for 2016 are in, and it’s all sorts of fun — if you’re into suffering and crying.

If you think food and medicine shortages are the ugliest problem Venezuelans have, wait until you learn about one of the most toxic subsidies around.

The international community was making good progress on isolating and punishing the Maduro Regime. Then Donald Trump had to start running that giant mouth of his, bigly.

As pedestrians replace protesters on the streets of Caracas, photographer Pedro Moretti shares some highlights and lowlights of the action over the past four months. Yes, it's been four months already.

In agreeing to let the Constituyente hold its sessions at the Palacio Federal Legislativo without protest, MUD demonstrates the kind of spinelessness that earns the furious contempt of its own nominal supporters.

Data-geddon is coming. And if course it's the fault of an imperialist foreign power, not communist negligence or absurd price controls.

As El Hatillo mayor David Smolansky goes underground, I think back on the amazing, inspiring 2013 campaign that made him mayor. It’s no wonder the government’s scared of him.

The head of Venezuela’s all-powerful Constituent Assembly learned the hard way that if you want to snarl, you’re better off doing it in public than one-on-one with the leader.

The U.S. needs a way to put meaningful pressure on the Maduro regime without making oil prices spike or Venezuelans starve. The way you do that is Oil-for-Food.

With the U.S. preparing to cut off PDVSA, you’d imagine the company would be a hubbub of contingency planning for this catastrophe. You’d be wrong.

With the opposition signing up for governor elections now a fact, there’s one man to blame for the mess that the opposition is in today.

I've run out of G-rated words to describe our descent into all-out dictatorial communist hell. Thankfully, Hannah Dreier has our back on The Global POLITICO podcast. Have a listen.

What began as a polite exchange between traditional political enemies became a peek into what we can, and should expect from our politicians in the weeks to come.

Imagine Nicolás facing the economic sanctions of the world by enlisting troops and declaring war. Crazy? Yes, but it wouldn't be the first time a Venezuelan autocrat acts this way.

People say Maduro is lazy. I have to disagree: he works tirelessly day in and day out to find new and innovative ways to kill us all.

The Federal Legislative Palace has new tenants who wasted no time in changing the décor. Where will the opposition work now?

Last Wednesday, the opposition received a gift from the gods. Hours later, it was a house devouring itself.

Brazen lies about turnout, stolen seats, cheating at solitaire with millions of made-up votes prove that Maduro hates his people as much as he hates us. But for many followers, hope is still alive.

The bolivar lost two thirds of it's value on the black market in 77 days. We unpack the currency's collapse.

Luisa Ortega Diaz threatened to take Maduro to international court if she is removed from her post. We look into the details.

With a country reaching emergency levels of medicine scarcity, the other critical shortage, food, is turning into famine.

For most of us, the sound and the fury are seen through a screen from the safety of our homes. This, however, is what happens when the security blankets are gone.

In an explosive double whammy, BBC and Reuters confirm what we all suspected: the numbers reported by Tibisay were fake, and the entire process was a sham.

As the Trump White House mulls sanctions on Venezuela’s oil industry, we consider the upsetting possibility that we’re just a pawn in Putin’s grand strategy.

The question is not why airlines are leaving Venezuela, but how come they stuck around so long.

The government hears stories about a Humanitarian Crisis and sees a public relations problem at best, an international plot at worst. Me? I see people dying.

Food lines, barricades and empty bellies: the day after the Constituent vote might as well have been any other day in our embattled city.

Venezuelan bonds collapsed to 15-month lows as the Constituyente doomsday clock ticked towards midnight.

Announcing a beyond-crazy  turnout figure, Tibisay Lucena puts the final nail in the National Elections Council's credibility.

The election was fake, but the violence was real: a detailed look at the mayhem nationwide as Venezuelans reject the government’s attempt to institutionalize dictatorship.

Ciudad Guayana is a government bastion —tons of state workers around. Their stories are consistent: they’re all being told explicitly they either vote or they’re fired.

Nobody understands today’s election system. With everything on the line, this might as well be a lottery.

As the threat of an Constituent Assembly that lifts even notional limits on what the crazies can do, the dystopian vibe in our public sphere deepens.

Sunday’s election is a giant charade, so how do you get people to go out and vote? By laying on the intimidation like there’s no tomorrow. Because, if you fail, there may not be.

The most surprising revelation in The Economist’s cover story this week is that Manuel Rosales has some fans in London.

Although half of Caracas was deserted for Thursday’s strike, downtown buzzed with activity… and dread.