Caracas Chronicles

HBO’s Last Week Tonight with John Oliver focused on the Venezuelan crisis. Far from perfect, at least it’s a good introduction to Maduro and his government.

Shops that buy gold and silver have prospered all around Caracas. People are selling their jewelry and family heirlooms to leave the country or when they’re too broke to repair their car.

American cereal-maker Kellogg’s announced that it would leave Venezuela, leaving hundreds without jobs and a void in our breakfasts.

There’s a power struggle within chavismo in Zulia State. It seems like it’s going to be former golpista, presidential candidate and governor Francisco Arias Cárdenas by himself, against the rest of them.

Now that Venezuelan migrants have become a problem for the entire region, especially neighboring countries like Brazil and Colombia, international organizations like UNHCR and World Food Program are trying to find ways to help Venezuelans who fled the country.

The sudden momentum behind Javier Bertucci, the evangelical preacher turned candidate, has caught everyone by surprise. It has to be a miracle, we can’t explain this.

Henri Falcón is campaigning, even though he had been warned. It won’t make a difference because chavismo chose him to lose the election and he let them. It will be his fault, but he’ll try to blame us.

To honor celebrated Venezuelan painter Armando Reverón on his birthday, we review what has been said about his character, his legacy and his work.

In a special session this week, Mike Pence’s remarks on the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela became the strongest statement ever issued by an official in the region.

My unified theory of May 20th: the government had a pathetically easy time engineering what has become a poisonous, pus-oozing split at the heart of Venezuela's opposition.

The Global Fund should not overlook Venezuela in their board meeting this week.

Strange things are happening in Venezuela’s parallel foreign exchange market. We delve into the dark depths of bolivar-dollar unregulated trading to understand what’s going on.

Chavismo’s hostile Banesco intervention causes more damage than people detained and distressed customers: It reveals just how the government really screwed up our economy.

The May 20 "elections" are 14 days away. We start the official countdown with an introduction. The bad, the worst, the come on, seriously? and the who are you again?

What do you get when you combine an acute shortage of car replacement parts and military control? Pretty awful bus rides, it turns out.

In addition to being an inconvenience considering the scorching Maracaibo weather, blackouts and the electric crisis affect each “maracucho” differently.

The Maduro op-ed on Spanish paper El País almost made him sound democratic and kind. We wonder how much he paid for that page and if El País’ ethics were sold separately.

After years of veiled threats against Venezuela’s largest bank, 11 Banesco executives were arrested and now face the uncertain.

Even though middle-class Caraqueños tried to protect their savings with residential real estate, their year-to-year value dropped dramatically in 2017, leaving them helpless against inflation.

Chavismo blatantly disregarded the constitution when it failed to provide economic data to Venezuelans and to the IMF. They had been warned and, as always, they didn’t care.

Some say the Frente Amplio Nacional is just the MUD hidden under a new acronym. The protest this Friday proved they’re both equally weak and disconnected from people’s struggles and needs.

Why show up if you’ll be underpaid and blackmailed into proclaiming allegiance to the revolution. It’s easier to demand food from the "Gobierno Obrero" that wants workers to remain poor.

Venezuela is a monument of all the reasons why vaccination should be a top priority for every health system and the unimaginable things that can happen when it isn’t. When it comes to health, it’s always better to be safe than sorry.

Medical residents stand for 11 hours straight in an operating room saving lives. Sometimes, they have to do that on an empty stomach.

Some of Maduro’s neighbors dropped by the Miraflores Presidential Palace asking for some water, reaching where no MUD protest dared to go before.

It seems the National Assembly won’t be able to trial Maduro, after all. Enter the International Criminal Court, the little court that could.

In 2015, we published a piece about an authoritarian regime about to collapse after rigging a vote. It was the political landscape of 1957, that looked a lot like 2015… and a lot like today.

An unexpected conversation with a forgotten member of society takes a poignant turn, and we learn what happened to our “guerreros de La Resistencia” once they went underground.

The Marxism-Sadomasochism Era is here: Venezuela’s begun ailing the people it most needs. The revolution charged Chevron managers with treason, an unseen realm of wanton national self-immolation.

On Tuesday, April 17, doctors and health workers protested outside of hospitals all around the country to demand medical supplies and better wages that at least allow them to buy food.

The list of political prisoners keeps growing at alarming rates. Same illegal procedures and violations of due process, different victims.

Absenteeism is the new normal among Guayana’s once exemplary basic industries. Workers just don’t even bother anymore.

The trial against Maduro by the TSJ in exile is a justice trainwreck – it’s technically not a ruling, because they are not the Supreme Tribunal. It speaks volumes about the lack of leadership and strategy within the opposition.

The government’s erratic, irresponsible, frequently unconstitutional economic behavior had to extend all the way to its handling of their petro atrocity. What else could be expected?

Celebrated historian, writer and professor Rafael Arráiz Lucca sets the record straight about the events of April 19, 1810. The road to independence and freedom is never as clear (or easy) as we thought.

The plot thickens in one of many PDVSA corruption “guisos”. The goose that had been laying whatever was left of our golden eggs was already being torn apart by rivaling mafias from the inside and is now in serious peril with a new corruption lawsuit.

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.