Caracas Chronicles

Quico says: It’s hard to overstate how bizarre the judicial persecution against Globovision financier and president Guillermo Zuloaga’s had already gotten even before the judge put in charge of the case, Alicia Torres, got sacked today. Over the weekend, Judge Torres came under so much pressure to sign an order banning the man from leaving the country, she ended up in hospital, with heightened blood pressure and a recipe for the obligatory Lexotanil – Venezuela’s cheap-and-cheerful tropical knock-off version of Valium.

This video gives you a pretty good sense of the backstory. She was plainly terrified about what the higher ups in her tribu might do to her if she refused to play ball, and told stories of physical intimidation so rank they had already made any pretense of independent justice just silly in this case, even before she lost her job.

Globovision is, to put it mildly, not my cup of tea. But as per usual, the government’s sheer gangsterism in dealing with the station’s critical coverage so vastly overshadows its own shortcomings, it’s not even close.

Post 12 of 100. Just eight to go today.