Con la guerra en Ucrania por encima del descalabro absoluto del país me pregunté cómo era posible todavía ser chavista. Sí, es una pregunta que uno se hace a veces, pero después de varios años fuera de Venezuela cuál sería la respuesta que le podría dar. Sin sentir el pulso del país por el mero hecho de ya no tener que hacer cola en algún supermercado o oficina de desgobierno, ¿cómo saber la evolución de las mentalidades? Pero los hechos son tercos. Desde que me fui, durante la escasez perpetua, hubo la dolarización. Luego llegó el Covid y el cierre del país a nivel de cierre chino. La reapert ..read more

The Venezuelan opposition delegates met the chavista's ones in Mexico, in a supposed restart of negotiations interrupted months ago. A curious thing was that they went all the way to Mexico city to sign a document already negotiated behind closed doors in Caracas. So Mexico was an expensive show, they could have stayed in Caracas..... This agreement started a storm in Venezuela even though people do not have access to all the information, even though it was already announced as a restart of negotiation, something far, very far from being a done thing.  The Venezuelan public is at the same ..read more

The big discussion today at least for those interested in Venezuela is the handshake and hallway chit chat that Maduro had with France's Macron yesterday at the COP 27 being held in Egypt.  Besides the nauseous images, at least for yours truly, it is necessary to try to figure out what is really going on. First, what the hell was Maduro doing at Sharm El-Sheikh? He could go there because he did not risk to be detained. Hopefully his two airbus will not be forced to land in a country where there is no dictator like Egypt's Al Sisi. And yes, Maduro went with two big CO2 producing airplanes ..read more

 I was planning this second post long ago, following my crude description of why Venezuela remains messed up in spite of all the regime propaganda. But on occasion procrastination pays and I can start with recent items telling us what type of wondercrap Venezuela is. First the new economic zones (ZEE). This is the latest at attracting foreign investors offering them all sorts of fiscal favors, and other favors that better remain nameless for the time being, but surely one would be by exempting those investors with having to follow labor laws. The delirium goes as far as including in these ..read more

 "Venezuela se arreglo", Venezuela is fixed up. This is what the regime would like us to believe, but not they alone. There are also a few people that are tired to be opposition. There are also a few more in the US that are desperate to recover their lost funds. And some in the Biden administration that would love to have Venezuela supply what we do not want anymore from Russia. Pipe dreams all.  Nothing will improve significantly as long as those in place remain at Miraflores palace. I am not going to repeat my tired tirade on what we have there are not politicians but a narco mafia ..read more

Since some people seem not to have forgotten me I am writing this short entry to catch up with me, not Venezuela. That one is hopeless and I cannot find courage to write about it, except for a few tweets. Maybe inspiration will come back but I feel like cheating writing about Venezuela without being there.  I am not one of these journos or tankies that spend a couple of weeks in Caracas and think they are entitled to write a book about Venezuela. Since last time I wrote my remission failed. So new treatments, new side effects, etc.  But now things are looking better with the new trea ..read more

 After years of covering in detail Venezuelan elections I would be remiss not to mention last Sunday regional "elections" in Venezuela. Then again, as I put in a tweet, the same day Chilean elections seemed more important to follow. At least for me. Once upon a time, say before 2015, one could still find enough information, enough semi reliable data to look for trends in Venezuelan voting results. I did not do too bad in my analysis predictions. But after the debacle of 2015 the regime made sure no vote meant anything anymore. I am not going to go into tiresome details. Remember, they are ..read more

 A few days ago I was writing about the regime apparent willingness to consider that maybe, it was an hypothetical hypothesis that well, you know, we may talk to someone in Guaido's office to see if we could borrow the pencil sharpener..... And then we got Guaido making a rather dramatic statement as to be willing to ask for lifting a few sanctions AFTER the regime shows positive concrete signs of serious negotiations with preliminary results. In a Tweeter thread I posted on that: (1)This could be a major development. @jguaido offers a global negotiation of measured give and take. In sho ..read more

In the past few weeks a few strange signs have been happening for a regime that supposedly has all controls in hands. A regime that has made a point to sabotage any negotiation, to deny the existence of its political opposition, a regime ready to do anything for its survival has given timid signs of negotiating. Before you get your hopes up keep in mind that until now the small concessions made are easily reversible without much damage toward the inner base of the regime. These first sign was related with Covid, in spite of the heartless approach of the regime towards its victims. Namely it wa ..read more

As weeks go by the situation in Venezuela gets worse. Reports that reach me are frightening. A couple of weeks ago I wrote a long tweet thread in Spanish and with new updates I think it is a time to make it a text in english. Me van a perdonar por esta serie de hilos en matrioshka sobre la incompetencia del régimen frente al Covid, pero cada día hay más barbaridades que agregar. Hoy tenemos que reportar lo de @DrodriguezVen al rechazar la entrada de #AstraZeneca, bordeando la locura asesina. https://t.co/DaYP9rqZke — daniel duquenal (@danielduquenal) March 25, 2021 The thread was taken and r ..read more