Hannah Dreier, for Team Screwed.

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.

As we wake up to news that two more opposition mayors have been slapped with arrest warrants, bringing the total to five in two weeks, that National Guardsmen are blocking elected National Assembly lawmakers from entering the Legislative Palace because the Constituent Assembly will be having its way with our failed state for as long as they want to, that every opposition party except for two will present candidates before a fraudulent National Electoral Council for regional elections in the following days, and that any words I can use to describe how fucked we are would put me over my weekly expletive quota by several years, it’s as good a time as any to hand the Team Screwed commentary over to the formidable Hannah Dreier, who can at least bring you her personal account of Venezuela’s free fall into dictatorship in an eloquent, unrestrained interview now that she’s no longer bound by AP’s legal department (she’s now doing badass investigative pieces on immigration at Propublica).

Do listen to the whole thing, but, spoiler alert, it all comes down to this:

“Things can always get worse and worse and worse, and there’s no rule that says that a miserable situation has to end, just because it’s too miserable.”

As the self-appointed President of Caracas Chronicles’ Team Screwed, I proudly welcome nuestra Hannah to our ranks. We don’t have any pins, but we’ll make sure to send you an extra portion of our standard-issue lentil rations when the communist regime has been fully installed.

Oh, and please tell the Marines to hurry up.

Emiliana Duarte

Emi is a cook, a lover of animals, politics, expletives, and Venezuela. She is the co-founder of Caracas Chronicles LLC and Managing Editor if the site until December 2017.