Caracas Chronicles

The battle for CITGO money has begun. This week, the National Assembly approved the appointment of new directors for the U.S.-based PDVSA company that sells gasoline in 29 U.S. states and operates three refineries in U.S. soil.

One of Venezuela’s most accomplished editors, and one of its most brilliant thinkers, is taking the helm of Caracas Chronicles. We’re honored to have him and, well, a little bit giddy too.

After three weeks that felt like a year, the Venezuelan transition process feels a bit stagnated. An article in Bloomberg reminds us that the usurpation is far from over, and that many things could still go wrong. But there are also reasons to not freak out (that much) about it.

Among the rumors of what the regime can do to avoid the U.S. measures, some terrifying questions emerge. Without imported naphtha, how can PDVSA export any diluted heavy oil at all? What fuel could be then used by the thermoelectric plants? And how many days with gasoline and diesel do we have in this country?

The caretaker president seems free of an old, strong tradition common to chavismo and opposition: politics is about following a man. By acting always in the name of the National Assembly, Guaidó works on a critical return to institutionality.

While many demand an open attack on the Maduro regime, the Vatican is actively using its soft power toward an immediate political change. Theologist Rafael Luciani, who works directly with the Pope, explains how.

Amidst Venezuela’s complex humanitarian emergency and with a criminally negligent state, national and international organizations are in urgent need of help from organized citizens, as long as they’re well trained and informed.

It’s a currency that doesn’t exist, and it’s illegal for the U.S., but when chavismo makes it mandatory to pay for intellectual property in petros, how can international clients protect their work without getting accused of a crime?

Organizations and people who defend human rights, activists and promoters of Non-Violence and Peace, conscientious objectors and anti-militarists, who take action in Venezuela, address this open letter to the world, sharingtheir opinion about the conflict which is currently unfolding in Venezuela.

2019’s protests have unfolded in a rather peaceful and predictable manner. The plot twist nobody expected today was a direct command to the Armed Forces from the caretaker president, for what might be the key moment of this struggle.

In 1918 this influenza pandemic wiped out the world. In Venezuela, it found a vulnerable country with irresponsible leaders, that hid away until the disease mysteriously faded out in early 1919. A hundred years have passed, but the country hasn’t changed that much.

As the propaganda apparatus insists that there’s no humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, now it’s spreading panic about the content of the relief cargoes.

Desiré Cumare, a nurse from Maracao, at the southwestern tip of Caracas, saw how the regime’s death squad killed his son kicking his head, “just because we can”. They also sacked the apartment. “It’s a war on us.”

Virgilio Jiménez was detained during a demonstration, in November 2017. On February 5th, he died in jail due to an infection he would've recovered from if he hadn't been severely malnourished. He’s the 12th Venezuelan inmate to die in such circumstances in 2019, and in the same state: Lara.

Four weeks after Nicolás Maduro started a presidential term not recognized as legitimate by most of the international community and with that a full constitutional crisis of global resonance, social networks and streets are again a racing course between believers and discouraged. But this time, Team Hope looks way closer to the trophy.

Thousands of fake accounts are working from Venezuela to divide the opposition to the Maduro regime and gather support from American leftists. How do we know it? Because Facebook and Twitter reporten them and shut them off.

How he worked with Leopoldo López and Luis Almagro. How Jorge Rodríguez behaves with Rodríguez Zapatero and the words he uses when speaking about the European Union... Julio Borges has been a key actor and he has a lot to tell.

I'm a doctor, working in a small town. I deal with our complex humanitarian emergency every single day. Here’s why I think Venezuela's ramshackle outpatient clinic network has to have first dibs on aid… if the military and the regime allow its entry.

One of Venezuela's top media scholars, Andrés Cañizalez, finds the influence of 'cadenas'—mandatory chain broadcasts—is in freefall, and regime propaganda less influential than ever before. How did Jorge Rodríguez lose his mojo?

The National Assembly has just approved Juan Guaidó’s road-map for returning Venezuela to Democracy. We open the hood, take a look around, and kick the tire on Guaidó’s Transition Statute.

Yesterday, the National Assembly approved the Law of the Statute of Democratic Transition. Very briefly, this is what you need to know.

Juan Guaidó has revealed an amazing gift for connecting with his audience. He may be young, but Guaidó is no rookie. He’s been a politician his entire adult life. And he learns fast.

The answer chavismo has given to the recent national upheaval has been unrestricted violence; not only the FAES is loose and unaccountable, now the arrests are targeting children. The war on the poor, indeed, has never been this palpable before.

With the imminent arrival of humanitarian aid, new problems arise. Lack of infrastructure, storage facilities, qualified personnel and transportation, rampant corruption and the political questions: Will the Armed Forces let it in? Will they disobey Maduro to allow food and medicine into the country?