Caracas Chronicles

For years, DolarToday.com was the dominant player in setting prices in bolivars for black market dollars. These last few weeks, confidence in DolarToday has caved-in, leaving a baffling free-for-all in its wake. For all practical purposes, DolarToday is dead. We eulogize it.

Reuters reports that two Chevron employees were arrested. The persecution of PDVSA employees due to alleged corruption hits an important joint venture partner of the State oil company.

Astrid Cantor, Caracas Chronicles columnist, took to the global stage of the Women in the World Summit to share her experience as a woman and as a doctor struggling in this broken Venezuela.

It's not that there’s no blood; the government hasn't supplied healthcare centers with reagents anymore. Urgent changes are needed while people pay with their lives.

The Maduro administration defaulted on the USD 650M payment of Electricidad de Caracas’ 2018 bonds due on April 10, as expected by the market. However, PDVSA 6% 22 bond coupons due since October were released to investors. State media and officials remain in full blackout mode.

Last May, AFP’s photojournalist Ronaldo Schemidt captured a powerful image during the months of protests in Venezuela. Now, that photo was recognized as the best of 2017.

From his very first day in office “el hijo del galáctico” has won one battle after another against capitalism. And I can only hope and pray for God to take some of his powers away.

The Venezuelan health system faces the worst crisis in its history. There’s a lot to be done before things can change for the better, and it won’t be easy or fast, but we have a plan.

As Venezuela keeps massively exporting both migrants and refugees, the question remains whether the international community is ready to call the situation a crisis. Defining what a “crisis” is remains a challenge.

The perennial conflict between individual incentives and the common good is the most pressing issue studied by contemporary social sciences. It’s also key to understanding how our country became a mess.

In Venezuela, the government of President Nicolás Maduro is arresting and detaining—in horrific conditions—teenagers who use Facebook to call on friends to attend anti-government demonstrations.

It appears the days when people bought and sold their dollars after checking the infamous website are over. There’s a new website in town and experts in the field trust the newcomer’s transparency more.

Two U.S. congressmen visited Venezuela last week and met with Nicolás Maduro. But one of those visits actually caught many by surprise and raised a lot of questions.

Venezuelan prostitutes are in high demand in Lima. Their pimp speaks candidly about the business.

Despite the economic crisis in Venezuela, there’s one sector where business is booming: cryptocurrencies. From mining to exchanges, Venezuelans are finding ways to make a living around a new technology that’s on its way to mainstream adoption.

A leading human rights NGO joins forces with a Lifetime Achievement Latin Grammy winner to create awareness about what’s going on in Venezuela.

You don’t have to worry when you can’t find products in the supermarket. WhatsApp has got your back, since many distributors offer a good range of products and services that way.

The Venebot platform trains young Venezuelans and helps them with their interests in science and technology, specifically in robotics. Sounds surreal, but somebody has to prepare us for the future, especially now that the country seems to be stuck in the past.

The government, with its current system of slave production, keeps kids at jails called “schools” where there’s no qualified learning and international indicators point that out.

You know it’s getting real and shit has hit the fan when the most celebrated Venezuelan parody website starts writing seriously.

Opposition parties have fought hard for a shy success in recent years. One of their main challenges is to recover people's trust.

Guyana is making its legal move in The Hague to settle the Esequibo dispute for good. But does Venezuela have any reason to be concerned about the recent actions by Georgetown?

Leopoldo and New York Times journalist Wil Hylton arranged several interviews saying they were old classmates. They managed to do so right under SEBIN officials’ noses and the result is a two-part podcast where Leopoldo speaks his mind.

All the legal myths surrounding the evermore confusing petro will be debunked and your questions will be answered by our trustworthy experts.

As Venezuela spirals deeper into the sinkhole of hyperinflation and socio-economic crisis, webcam pornography platforms are depicted as plausible income sources for those in need, raising legal, ethical and economic dilemmas.

The BCV revamped and refreshed the look and feel of its online platform, but opacity, secrecy and misconduct in madurismo’s economic policies haven’t changed one bit. You have been warned.

Proyecto Salto helps individuals and entire families leave the country, providing immigrants with resources to start their new life abroad. It’s no easy task, and they need support in order to keep doing it.

An answer to Quico’s “¿Y tú qué propones?” could be that wishful thinking, inaction and having doubts about the true nature of the monster are not the answer.

On this Easter Sunday, let’s take a moment to appreciate the effort and struggle of the Catholic Church in Venezuela.

21st Century Judases: Chavismo has weeded out its internal enemies, publicly flogged them in cadenas and branded them as traitors. We know what they did and we know we’ll need them, but we also want to make them pay. Not very holy.

Venezuelans are forced to go through hell whenever they need to get pretty much anything done. We don’t carry the burden of the cross, but we carry and are burdened by chavismo even when we don’t deserve it.

In a country where 60% of the population lives in extreme poverty, the clearest sign of Nicolás Maduro’s terrible job as president might be his most powerful electoral weapon. When you need votes, threatening to starve people to death works like a charm.

Going for a run is considered an extreme sport in places like Ciudad Guayana, since malandros, garbage, stray dogs and vultures, to name a few obstacles, abound.

The fact there’s an electric crisis in Western states makes life even harder for everyone across the Colombian-Venezuelan border, for those who are staying and for those who are trying to flee.

Fighting a dictatorship means facing nothing but bad options. Choosing one is a responsibility our politicians have mostly defaulted on. So, what are the real options on the table? And who will dare to look at them dispassionately?

NGO Alimenta la Solidaridad - Petare helps families in one of the largest slums in the continent. These are the stories of people who can’t afford to feed their children and of those fighting hunger in Venezuela’s less fortunate communities.

With fewer places to go and options to spend their money, Venezuelans go to the movies to forget their problems, even though the movie theater industry has seen better days.

After four years of judicial ordeal, human rights lawyer Marcelo Crovato fled Venezuela with his family. Before his new life in Argentina, a look at what he went through.

10 years ago the government took off three 0’s from the bolivar, saying it was a cosmetic fix and would strengthen the economy. Now, they will try to do it again.

For the fifth year in a row, NGO Médicos por la Salud and the National Assembly dare to do what the government has refused to: expose the chaotic reality in the Venezuelan Hospital Network and how the health crisis has gotten worse than ever.

It doesn’t end with finding blood donors, reagent scarcity got so bad that there’s a black market for blood transfusions operating in Venezuelan hospitals. You’ll live, sure… If you can pay up to ten minimum wages per transfusion.

Blackout season is back to stay. To some Venezuelans, the collapse of the national electric grid means heat and even more stress in their homes. For others, like patients in hospitals, it’s a death sentence.

There are just too many digits and the scales can’t keep up. So, Venezuelans simplify, dividing the number in their minds and using those numbers in their language.

Social media went wild because of rumors about Cruz Diez’ tile floor at Maiquetía Airport, his “Cromointerferencia de color aditivo”. Once a symbol of modern Venezuela, it has suffered years of deterioration and official negligence.

Like every mediocre enchufado before him, the new accomplice to the regime is brainless, unoriginal and unscrupulous. His only talent is his bolichico-ridden phonebook and that’s nice for them, they can share a cell down the road.

We know what every political prisoner is being subjected to. Unfortunately, Gilber Caro, substitute deputy to the National Assembly, is no exception to the dictatorship’s rulebook of psychological torture, isolation, coercion and an overall unfair process.

The new generation of “rumberos” has no money to drink in bars and the odds of being shot are way too high at night. So, they adapted and now, they bring the party (and the ice box) home.

The most recent World Happiness Report determines Latin Americans are fairly happier than other regions. However, shouldn’t Venezuelans be the happiest people on the planet due to the fact that we have an entire ministry devoted to it?