Mitt Romney isn’t the only presidential candidate having to answer for a controversial event caught on video. The presidential election in Venezuela will take place on October 7, 2012 and corruption is becoming that race’s primary issue. When Venezuelans go to the polls in less than a month (they will vote using an electronic system […]
With Venezuela’s presidential election coming up on October 7, one question looms large – can Hugo Chávez possibly lose? Perhaps the question should actually be, can his challenger win? From what I have read, the opposition is unified, pragmatic, and proactive in a manner different from prior campaigns. Checking my past posts, I haven’t written […]
The Washington Post’s Juan Forero recently published an article on the erosion of democratic institutions in Latin America. Among the “new authoritarians” he cites as responsible for the decline are Hugo Chavez and several of his key allies, namely Ecuador’s Rafael Correa, Bolivia’s Evo Morales and Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega. All of them have ridden roughshod […]
What will Venezuela look like after Hugo Chávez’s reign? Given the secrecy surrounding Chávez’s cancer status and the growing popularity of Henrique Capriles, Chavez’s rival in the October 7 election, the question is more relevant now than anytime since 2003. Last week Wikistrat, a geostrategic consulting firm I am associated with, published a piece on […]
Fascinating. But apparently quite true. In 1959 or so, Fidel as new Commander-in-Chief in Cuba had all golf courses on the island razed but one 9-hole course in Havana and an 18-hole course in Varadero. Following in his socialist footsteps much more recently, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez announced that he would shut down luxury golf courses in that […]
On the heels on the announcement that Latin America is forming a new regional organization without the US and Canada to rival the Organization of American States, it looks like the current Inter-American system is coming under fire. Or at least it is from Venezuela. After the release of a 300 page report by the […]
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Hugo Chavez, President of Venezuela, has changed his mind. He loves big oil companies after all. The history of Big Oil and Hugo Chavez reads like one of those dysfunctional relationships most of us have at least briefly been involved in: he or she only loves you when they […]
It is the reverse of what might be expected: the oil-rich, OPEC-member country Venezuela will be counseled through its energy crisis by the small island nation of Cuba, which is renowned for its blackouts and imposed rationing of electricity amid energy shortages of its own. Caracas, which supplies the bulk of Cuba’s oil supplies, turned […]
Overview 2009 was all about China. Early in the year, when energy prices crashed due to disappearing demand, oil sank to slightly more than $30 barrel from its mid-2008 high of $147 and natural gas from $14 to around $3 per thousand cubic feet. China, flush with cash, for all practical purposes stabilized the market […]
Socialism and energy have a peculiar relationship to each other. In most countries, no matter who owns the surface land, the subsurface rights to the oil, gas, or (sometimes) minerals, belongs to the national government, and, in theory, the people of the country. The idea did not start with the 20th century: kings and rulers […]
At a party last year, an acquaintance asked me why Hugo Chavez, the President of Venezuela, was so anti-Israel. How were Israel and Jews a threat to him? Since Chavez has been president, anti-Semitic behavior in Venezuela (not known as a hotbed of anti-Semitism) has increased noticeably with attacks on synagogues and against the tiny […]
The Venezuelan flag carries a rich historical tradition, and is based on versions used by rebels who fought for the country’s independence in the early 19th century. At the same time, like Venezuela as a whole, the flag has undergone changes in recent times. The flag has three horizontal colored stripes. The red is said […]
In an editorial within today’s Washington Post, Edward Schumacher-Matos presents a nice summary of what might be considered a waning in the power of Venezuelan President, Hugo Chávez. As Schumacher-Matos describes, on a number of fronts other South American nations have been acting counter to Chávez’s wishes. Ecuador, though considered an ally, has reached out […]
President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela continues to criticize the recent agreement allowing access by a limited number of United States military forces and contractors to Colombian military bases. The accord, signed last Friday, enables the US to support anti-narcotics operations, and to replace its previous base at Manta, Ecuador. Chávez has used particularly strong language […]
Last week Venezuela’s National Assembly pushed forward on a law to extend the socialist nature of the country’s educational system. At the local level this gives greater control over curriculum development to the country’s Communal Councils, which are strongly pro-government. Many members of the Assembly who support the legislation say they do so in order […]