To Lift or Not to Lift the Lockdown
Most Venezuelans want the lockdown to be lifted, but many are ignoring the most important question: how to do it
Massive Shortages in Venezuela Are Closer Than They Appear
Fuel shortage and lockdowns are reigniting the regime’s controlling instincts—and overwhelming the people’s capacity for survival
Maduro Has Another Curve to Flatten
Applying social distancing measures to slow the spread of COVID-19 is the right way to go. The thing is, it’ll devastate what remains of the Venezuelan economy.
Bursting the Wellness Bubble
There’s a weird vibe in Caracas of economic improvement, with shortages slowly disappearing. But if you go past the surface of the incipient upgrades, you’ll see we’re far from real, stable development.
The ‘Access Denied’ Economy
The Maduro regime let the official dollar be and allowed prices to go up, in exchange for reduced shortages. Caracas is now repeating a pattern that we’d seen in Maracaibo already: shelves are full again, but few can afford the products.
Caracas Drinks the Dollar Kool-Aid
The spontaneous dollarization, accelerated by blackouts and remittances, is threatening to restrict the legal currency to those who are forced to use it, and to distort the economy even more than it already is.
The (Many) Scary Sides of the Oil Sanctions
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?
Maduro’s Failure, in Eight Numbers
Rhetoric aside, what has the Maduro Era done to Venezuelans’ livelihoods? A deep dive into the numbers behind a calamity.
Navigating Venezuela’s Data Desert
The government’s spent years covering official data on Venezuela’s martyred economy. But there are alternatives out there. Here’s a guided tour.
Pernil Paternalism: For the Millionth Time, State Benefits are NOT Gifts
2018 is seeing the dispiriting return of a sad year-end ritual: the pernil messaging wars. As we argue over who does or doesn’t and should or shouldn’t get a pork leg, can we just get one thing straight? The stuff the state hands out is NEVER a gift.
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