Parting Thoughts

I head back to Washington, DC this weekend, but before I do I thought I would write one last post with some brief thoughts on Venezuela and what may or may not happen in the year ahead.

First of all, I had a thoroughly rewarding experience here, and would happily stay longer if circumstances dictated that I should and could. The people here are incredibly welcoming and friendly, and during my entire time here I only encountered one instance of some anti-imperalismo, with a soldier in the San Antonio de Táchira airport. For the reasons that I wrote about previously, Venezuela is a pretty great place, and I didn´t even travel to any of the spots that everyone says are the best in the country - the beaches of Los Roques and Margarita (and pretty much everywhere else too), Angel Falls (the highest waterfall in the world), Mérida (the picturesque city in the Andes), the national parks of El Morrocoy and Henri Pittier, etc.

Cleaning Out The Camera

I have taken a lot of pictures during my time in Venezuela, no doubt to the surprise of all. Many of them didn´t fit neatly into any of my previous posts, but I thought some were still worth sharing. So here is a smorgasbord of shots I have taken, which probably in some way also capture how I have spent my time here, along with some captions to put them into context.

The famous Patricia. She never wanted me to take a picture of her, but yesterday I took her to the movies as a thank you for everything and managed to snap this shot. I told her that my camera was out of batteries and then snapped this one after she let her guard down.

Capriles Assassination Attempt?

You may be forgiven for not hearing that there may or may not have been an assassination attempt against opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski this weekend. Heck, even if you live in Venezuela you might have overlooked the story given that most of the press coverage here is still focused on President Chávez´s recuperation in Cuba and the government´s recent announcements of products that will have their prices lowered by fiat in the coming months (a common election year tactic). The details of the incident remain murky, but here is the best account I can give.

Baptism By Fire

If I were a movie writer, I would get out my pen this morning and start working on a script based on how I spent my day on Saturday. The story would start on Friday evening, when I strolled the few blocks from my apartment to that which has become almost a second home for me: the apartment of the mother of my ¨padre/hermano perdido¨ in Venezuela. Those of you that have kept up with my blog since its inception will remember that I befriended a family who I met at the very first baseball game I attended, the very first week I arrived in Caracas. They have since become my closest friends here, and in many ways I have become an adopted member of their family. For the purposes of my movie and my readers´ understanding, here is a cast of characters for the folks I was with on Friday:

Food!

I think one of everybody´s favorite things about traveling is trying new foods. And one of everybody´s favorite things about hearing about other people´s travels is hearing about their culinary mishaps. With that in mind, although sadly I do not have any horror stories about food other than Patricia´s attempts to make me a jockey through her less than enticing cooking, I thought I would give everyone a taste of what kinds of food are most popular in Venezuela.

A Little Bit of Mischief While the Comandante is Away

Since President Chávez left Venezuela last week to go to Cuba for his surgery, a bit of a power struggle seems to have broken out in his absence. It is more clear than ever how critical his persona is for the government and the PSUV (his political party) and how little consensus exists within it apart from support for His Excellency. Roughly speaking there are two leading factions within the government - the radical leftists, currently led by outgoing Vice President Elías Jaua, and the military, led by former soldier and current Speaker of the National Assembly Diosdado Cabello. The radicals unabashadly look to Cuba for inspiration while the military wing seeks above all else to maintain its own privileged position and business interests, and has more desire to protect law and order (or at least order). Chávez himself bounces back and forth between the two groups as is convenient, never allowing (at least until now) one faction to gain too much influence.

During the past few months Chávez has seemed to favor the military branch more than usual. He has praised them repeatedly in public appearances, increased their salaries yet again, promoted Cabello to Vice President of the PSUV, and controversially declared that the military is chavista and owes its allegiance to him and not to the state. Jaua has already been informed (and that is exactly how it goes, Chávez dictates to his underlings what they will do) that he is to run for governor of the critical state of Miranda this year, though no date has been set for his departure as Vice President (it will have to be by June). Pundits speculated that Chávez was seeking to shore up the support of the military in advance of the October elections which could be quite close. Its support could be the critical factor in determining whether he is able to hold onto power in the face of controversy and protests.

A Return to the Field

After quite a hiatus I finally returned to the sports world yesterday and attended my first soccer game in Venezuela. Local club Caracas FC took on FC Carabobo in a matchup between two sides that were sitting in mid-table early in this Clausura season. The rojos, as Caracas is generally known, are one of the strongest teams in the league, finishing third last season and forming one half of the league's glamor rivalry with Deportivo Táchira, while as far as I know Carabobo does not have a particularly illustrous history. Further tipping the scales in the home side's favor was the fact that the day before the game the Caracas FC administration sent out a release informing supporters of Carabobo that they could not guarantee the security of their fans at the game, as violence has increasingly become a problem in the Venezuelan league. Thus as best as I could tell there was not a single Carabobo fan in the stadium. Or at least if there were they did not reveal themselves.

After 2 Months Patricia Still Doesn´t Know My Name

Patricia´s note to me. Or possibly Mark McGwire.

Native Spanish speakers have a ton of trouble pronouncing my name, because there are hardly any words in Spanish that end in a ´t´. I would say most people here call me ¨Mats¨ but I also get ¨Max¨ and ¨Mac.¨ On Thursday Patricia called me ¨Michael¨ and I gave her grief for the rest of the night about it. I also wrote my name in her address book with my phone number in the U.S. You would think that would be enough to get her to remember my name, at least for a couple of days. You would be wrong. Here is a picture of a note she left me yesterday.

Chávez´s Health

I´ve received a couple of emails asking about President Chávez´s health in the wake of his announcement on Tuesday that a lesion of approximately two centimeters has reappeared in the same area where a tumor was removed in June. Since that has dominated headlines here ever since I thought I would try to explain the impact it has had and will have moving forward as the presidential campaign season gets ready to kick into high gear.

The most important thing to note is that nobody has any idea about the true state of the President´s health, and anyone who says otherwise is bluffing (including the Brazilian doctors who continue to make statements to the press). In general in the foreign press the more anti-Chávez the source (link in Spanish), the more dire the prognosis of his health. In Venezuela that is not necessarily the case, which I will explain below. About a month ago a series of articles appeared around the globe claiming that Chávez would die before the election on October 7. Now many seem to be saying that he has less than a year to live, but that he will make it until October. The fact is, Chávez goes to Cuba for medical treatment, and nobody outside of him, his doctors there, and possibly the Castro brothers probably know the truth.

A Bungled Attempt To Culture Myself

Apparently my experience in Venezuela had been going a little too smoothly, because I hadn't had any inspiration lately to write another rant of a post. Fortunately for you all, that problem no longer exists.

Sometime last week I got an email from my aunt alerting me that I had the opportunity to attend a once-in-a-lifetime concert. 31-year old Venezuelan native and genius Gustavo Dudamel was returning home to conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic for a series of symphonies composed by Gustav Mahler at the Teresa Carreño Theater, which is located about half a mile from my apartment. I was vaguely aware of the performances because the Dudamel/LA Philharmonic combination just won a Grammy for best classical music, or something like that, which garnered a good bit of coverage in the local press here. I had heard of Dudamel in the past, as he is the crown jewel in Venezuela's famous ¨El Sistema,¨ which provides free musical instruments and training to underprivileged children throughout the country. It is one of the Chávez administration's most impressive achievements. But I hadn't really given any thought to attending any of the concerts.

The Best of Venezuela

I have written a lot about Venezuela´s challenges and problems, so since today marks the unofficial beginning of Carnaval, I thought now would be a good time to devote some space to highlighting some of its people´s best qualities, just as I did for Patricia earlier. As an aside, Carnaval here reminds me a bit of my days playing American Legion baseball. Then everyone on my team liked to play the game ¨spit your wad of dip on an unsuspecting soul´s cleats when they´re not looking¨ which is terrific fun for those that don´t use dip. Here Carnaval is quite a bit like Halloween. Kids dress up and older ones throw water balloons and eggs at unsuspecting passer-bys. Patricia got nailed yesterday and I managed to maintain a stern expression of disapproval when she arrived home. But I won´t be laughing if I get my turn and there wouldn´t be much I could do about it. Anyway, without further ado, here is a list of the top six characteristics of the country.

6. Taste in Humor
El Universal, the newspaper I read here every day, carries Calvin and Hobbes in its comics section.

Trip Pictures

Last week I traveled to the west of Venezuela for the first time, to the city of Maracaibo and then to the state of Táchira. I was too busy last week to write a post about the trip, and at this point I can´t really think of a narrative I can create to capture the entire trip, so I decided just to post some pictures I took along the way and write some captions. Sometimes it´s more fun anyway to look at pictures, right?

A Great Day for Venezuela

Yesterday´s primary resulted in an indisputable triumph for Venezuela´s opposition, with voter turnout greatly surpassing expectations and Henrique Capriles Radonski securing an unassailable mandate through his unexpectedly large margin of victory. With absentee ballots from Venezuelans living abroad yet to be tallied, Capriles won an impressive 62% of the more than 2.9 million ballots cast, receiving 1,806,860 votes. Pablo Pérez finished in second place with 867,601 while María Corina Machado received a disappointing 103,500. Diego Arria tallied 35,070.

In the lead up to the primary, opposition officials cautiously hoped for a turnout that would exceed two million. There are expected to be 17.9 million voters registered for the election in October. Of those, approximately seven million are estimated to be reliable supporters of the PSUV, Chávez´s party. Turnout for the last presidential election in Venezula was 74% (suspiciously high, some might say) while the last major poll, the constitutional referendum of 2009 drew 53% attendance. That means that to win in October a candidate will probably require at least six million votes. Chavistas will employ every tool at their disposal to get their supporters to the poll and will almost certainly use some dirty tricks to minimize the opposition´s ability to do so with their own.

With almost three million voters turning out yesterday, Henrique Capriles Radonski suddenly has real reason to hope. A huge number of people who do ultimately prefer him to Chávez did not vote yesterday. For some people it was because of inconvenience - they had other plans or did not wish to spend most of their day in line (more on that in a bit). For others it was because they did not have a strong preference between the opposition candidates, and prefered to wait until October to vote for whoever won. For others, it was a matter of fear. I spoke with many young people who are searching for employment who explained that they would not vote in the primary for fear that it would disqualify them from getting many jobs, including any with the government. Many people with public jobs were told or received hints that they too, should not vote. I met one woman yesterday who showed up to her polling station wearing a wig and baggy clothing to hide her identity. I spoke with another who had heard from a friend that she would be kicked out of her apartment building if she voted, but did so anyway. At some of the stations, especially in Chávez strongholds, men on mopeds drove past the lines with video cameras to record who had dared to support the opposition. The list goes on.

A Bit of Dark Humor on Primary Day

Today has been a busy day of voting in Venezuela. Tomorrow I´ll give my report on how the day went, but for the most part it seems to have gone about as smoothly as could have been expected. Which does not exclude waits of four hours and longer.

Anyway I wanted to share with you briefly a great email I got from one of my friends here. As background, on Friday there was an oil spill in the Guarapiche River in Monagas State, with estimates of up to 60,000 gallons contaminating the Maturín region already. This email is a fake memo that captures beautifully how chavistas actually sound. I know it´s in Spanish, but I don´t have time to translate it right now and google translator should be effective enough for those of you who don´t habla español.

Comunicado de la Embajada de Caripe. Por Benjamin Rausseau, Er Conde. En refrencia al bote d petroleo q hay en Maturin.Gracias a la revolución y a nuestro Comandante en Jefe Hugo Chávez, con el apoyo del pueblo Cubano y de nuestro Padre-Comandante Fidel, ahora Maturin es una ciudad rica!! El Socialismo ha convertido a Maturin en una ciudad tan rica, que abres el chorro de agua y lo que sale es petróleo!!!! Nojoda ni en Dubai hay esa vaina!!! Somos ricos nojoda. Viva Chavez!!! Viva Fidel!!!! Ahora el petróleo si es de todos!!! La nueva PDVSA lo puso en tu casa, en tu lavamanos, en tu ducha!!! Ahora los monaguenses se pueden hasta bañar con Petróleo. Hasta te puedes lavar el culo con petróleo si quieres!! Ni los árabes, ni los gringos, ...nadie es capaz de eso!!!! Asi es que se gobierna!! Solo en Revolución y gracias al Comandante Presidente esto es posible!! Petróleo para el pueblo!!! Que dirán los de la PDVSA aquella de la meritocracia que mantenían el petróleo encerrado en tuberías y el pueblo no lo podía tocar! Ahora el petróleo corre libre, libre como el cabalgar de Maizanta, de Zamora, de Bolivar.... Corre el petróleo libre sobre los ríos de Monagas!! Antes solo hubo agua en el Guarapiche, ahora la revolución y el Comandante Chavez lo han llenado de petróleo para riqueza del pueblo Monaguense. El agua es pa' los pobres, nosotros los ricos nos bañamos con petróleo! Gracias por todo Fidel!!! Viva Cuba! Viva Bolivar! Viva la nueva PDVSA! (Por favor NO VOTES el 12F. Los escuálidos son capaces de recoger el petróleo y venderlo en dólares en el mercado internacional !!!!

Primary Preview

Sunday comes the day that so many Venezuelans have been awaiting for so long, the opposition primary. Yesterday marked the end of the campaign, as per rules agreed upon by the candidates themselves, and I managed to attend a march led by Pablo Pérez and the last speech made by María Corina Machado, meaning that I have seen in person each of the three most important candidates. As such I feel that I am somewhat qualified to offer an evaluation of each and make a quick prediction of how I think the voting will turn out this weekend.

A Quick Update

I only have a short time to write this post as I do not have internet at my hotel right now and time is of the essence. But I wanted to let a few people know that I made it to my destination safely and mention a few things before they slipped my mind.

Yesterday I arrived in Maracaibo, Venezuela´s second biggest city. Venezuelans like to describe it, along with the entire state of Zulia, as the Texas of Venezuela. By that they mean that it is the richest region of the country, thanks to being the home of the oil industry, and that its people (known as maracuchos) are loud and gregarious. Many Venezuelans in the rest of the country profess not to care too much for the maracuchos, although others find that they are some of the friendliest and most entertaining.

Patricia's Story

I know I have been sharing a number of stories about my roommate Patricia that tease or criticize her a bit, so I thought it only fair to share with everyone what is actually a remarkable tale of her life and who she is. So here goes, and I apologize in advance for its length.

Patricia was born in 1958 in Zipaquirá, Colombia to a family of fabric makers. Her grandparents would buy wool from local shepherds, gather plants and berries, and spin and dye the wool to make cloths and other materials to sell. Zipaquirá at the time was a rural town just outside of Bogotá, but as the capital city has grown it has since been absorbed into the greater metropolitan area. Her mother was deaf and mute, and her father was a malandro (a bad apple) and never around. She has two sisters (two and four years younger, respectively) by her mother and two brothers and two sisters by her father. Because her mother suffered from ill health in addition to her disabilities she was essentially unable to care for her own children. Patricia was thus raised primarily by her aunt and grandmother, but as soon as she reached adolescence (or even a little before) she became the primary caretaker of her sisters.

Quirky Lefties (updated 1/31)

Left-handed pitchers, as every baseball fan knows, tend to have some eccentricities or foibles that make them endearing and unique (most of the time). Think of Doc Ellis' throwing a no-hitter while on LSD or Rube Waddell running out of stadiums to chase fire engines. Also, the fact that Brian Wilson is right-handed proves that he is annoying, and not quirky. Anyway, it is my belief that countries and cultures have similar quirks that stand out to outsiders and generally form part of their appeal. Here is my attempt to capture some of Venezuela's, in a format that owes much to the greatness of the website www.soloenvenezuela.com.

Staying Safe in Caracas

The next planned installment of my mini-series on Venezuela’s greatest challenges was to have focused on unemployment. But last night the Mexican Ambassador and his wife were kidnapped in Caracas (fortunately they were rescued unharmed this morning), and the resulting uproar and discussion here has had my mind concentrated on the other remaining issue – insecurity.

On Violence and Beauty

Venezuela is known for several things worldwide: its president and its abundance of oil, certainly. The fact that it is home to the world’s highest waterfall (Angel Falls) or that is it the birthplace of Simon Bolívar, maybe. But probably if you polled a global audience on the subject, the most common response you would get would be its remarkable success in producing beautiful women and international beauty pageant competitors. Venezuela has won six Miss Universe titles all-time, trailing only the United States’ seven, which is skewed from several wins early on in the competition (1950’s and 60’s) before it really started to catch on elsewhere. They also boast six first-runners up and five second-runners up. I promise I just looked up that trivia on Wikipedia and did not know if before.

***

I do not consider myself to be an especially lucky or unlucky person. By that I do not mean that I have not had great fortune to be born into the time, setting, and circumstances that I have or that I have not had opportunities that most of the world would do anything for. I mean only that when it comes to winning a raffle, finding a quarter on the street, or avoiding those summer afternoon thunderstorms, I’d say my success rate is fairly standard. Of course gambling on sports is a matter of skill.

For Those Not Fortunate Enough To Enjoy The World's Strongest Immune System

Based on the limited feedback I’ve received from my blog so far, it seems as though my readers most enjoy hearing about my misery and misfortune. I promise I’ll write about more (which means I’ll need to get myself into more) shenanigans, but bear with me for a little longer because believe it or not I sometimes use these posts as a sort of first draft to collect my thoughts for other work. In the meantime you can amuse yourself with visions of me finding more and more creative excuses not to eat breakfast (tuna arepa) or dinner (tuna arepa) even when I’m in the apartment. Also of me trying out a couple of salsa steps by myself in my room before going out on Saturday night, which will be the last time I go to a discoteca while I’m here unless I get visitor. Is that a strong enough incentive, Siobhan?

For now, though, I’d like to return to part two of my mini-series on the biggest issues facing Venezuela. I promise this one will be short, because it is also not a subject with which I am greatly familiar, and because I’ve been writing a lot this week. But I think it is particularly interesting and relevant to an ongoing debate in the U.S. as well.

Breaking News: Major Shakeup Within The Opposition

A huge decision was just announced moments ago at a joint press conference as opposition candidate Leopoldo López announced his withdrawal from the race for president and endorsed fellow opposition candidate Henrique Capriles Radonski. This is the first major shakeup in the race since it began, and it has major ramifications on the upcoming opposition primary on February 12.

Championship Series of Dreams

I know folks in the U.S. think that yesterday was an exciting doubleheader of football thanks to the NFL conference championship games, but let me tell you it had nothing on its counterpart here in Venezuela. Saturday was the final day of the round robin phase of the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League (LVBP). Going into the day the Aragua Tigers had wrapped up a spot in the championship series thanks to their Friday win over the collapsing Anzoátegui Caribbeans, which left them with a 10-5 record. The Caribbeans’ schedule was complete, and the early leaders finished at 9-7 after dropping six of their final seven games. Standing a half game back at 8-7 each were the La Guaira Sharks and the Magallanes Navigators, who faced the 3-12 Zulia Eagles and nothing-to-play-for Tigers respectively. Not surprisingly the two pursuers both won, creating a three-way tie for second place and setting up a baseball festival on Sunday.

In a wrinkle that rivals the dispersal draft for its genius, the LVBP held back-to-back elimination games to decide the second finalist. Due to their superior first round record, the Sharks were given a bye into the second game and hosted both contests at their home stadium in Caracas. At 4:00 the Caribbeans and Navigators faced off in what became a thrilling encounter. Magallanes jumped out to a 5-0 lead after scoring three in the top of the third, but Anzoátegui rallied with runs in the sixth and seventh. Then in the eight their captain Eliézer Alfonzo hit a clutch three-run home run to tie the game. After a scoreless ninth the Caribbeans advanced a runner to third base in the bottom of the tenth but were unable to bring him home. In the top of the eleventh a William Bergolla double drove in Alberto Callaspo to retake the lead for Magallanes. Desperate to stay alive, René Reys led off the bottom of the inning with a double but was once again stranded on third base as closer Ricardo Hernández sealed the victory for the Navigators.

I Got A Strong Back / Steel Toes

This week I plan to do a mini-series of posts on the biggest issues facing Venezuela, at least according to the sources I have talked to and the observations I have made. These are issues on a micro-scale faced by the population at-large. Thus I will not address declining oil production or a lack of competent political leadership, which are important but do not affect people's daily lives to a large degree. I will, however, try to explain what the problems are, how they affect daily life, and if they have any obvious sources or solutions.

Five issues are consistently mentioned by nearly everyone I ask, and it would be convenient and tidy to write an entry per day about each of them. However one of the five is the poor quality of the education system and frankly that is not my area of expertise. Instead I will focus on the other four, beginning today with one of most noticeable and at times insidious ones - inflation and the high cost of living.

Ronnie Dunn would be a big hit in Venezuela if he could sing in Spanish. His populist croon against the high cost of living would certainly strike a chord here, especially in Caracas. In fact, I would say that the cost of living, along with the related scourge of inflation, is the most discussed issue in the country after insecurity and unemployment.

Playoff Baseball at its Finest

An epic showdown last night culminated in a ninth inning rally falling 90 feet short, as the Magallanes Navigators fell to the La Guaira Sharks 9-8 in the Venezuelan Baseball League. The Navigators, favorite team of President Chávez and much of the nation, began the game in promising fashion when catcher Jesus Flores hit a solo home run in the top of the second inning. After the Sharks tied it thanks to another Alex “El Samurai” Cabrera home run in the bottom of the frame, Magallanes appeared to have broken the game open when they scored five runs in the top of the fourth. Three of the runs scored with two outs, and the Universitario Stadium was rocking thanks to a sell-out crowd that contained roughly 60% Navigators fans. The Sharks scratched out two runs in the bottom of the fifth to cut the lead to three, but it looked as though La Guaira would continue its fall down the standings and out of the championship race until a magical seventh inning.

After the non-existent seventh inning stretch (whose absence feels remarkably strange for me), each of the next eight Sharks batters to come to the plate reached base safely. Magallanes manager Carlos García changed pitchers twice during that span, but nothing could stop the onslaught. The noise of the crowd reached a crescendo when league MVP Gregor Blanco lined a double to center field, scoring two and giving the Sharks their first lead of the game. Fans everywhere began throwing their beers into the air, drenching everyone and making me glad I had worn a hat. The next batter, César Suárez, then stroked another single to left-center, driving in two more, giving La Guaira a cushion of three runs, and provoking more beer tossing. Never have I heard a baseball stadium so loud without Stephen Strasburg making his major league debut.

Entering the Seventh Circle

This morning I suffered through the realization of my absolute worst nightmare – close to three hours of shopping. After more than a week of deflecting the “invitation” of my roommate Patricia to help her go spend the rent money I had paid her, today I finally ran out of excuses, real and fabricated. Thus it was off to the Parque Central, which is not a park at all but the heart of downtown Caracas that contains a mixture of high rises and shops. We began with a couple of stores to find new sheets and a blanket for her bed. She asked a conservative estimate of 23 questions about material, pricing, and such, and eventually settled on a pair using what guidelines I have no idea. Let’s just say that the sheets and blanket both have multiple colors and not one can be found on both.

Next it was off to the electronics store to buy a new CD/cassette/radio so that she could play the collection of music she has accumulated over the years. We went through three models, with demonstrations for each, before selecting the most expensive one. Up until now, though, it had been an amusing but relatively painless experience for me. All of which was about to change.

An Up Close Look at the Opposition Favorite

Se ve

Se siente

Capriles Presidente!

This evening I attended an assamblea de ciudadanos (essentially a town hall) in the district of Recreo (a middle class neighborhood located in central Caracas) for opposition presidential candidate Henrique Capriles Rodonski. Although I have seen Leopoldo López speak in Washington, DC, this was my first time seeing a presidential candidate in person in Venezuela. I wanted to get a sense not only of the candidate himself, but also of the type of crowd that attends such an event, the atmosphere that exists, the expectation of the attendees, etc. Capriles Rodonski is the presumed favorite to win the opposition primary on February 12, and based on tonight’s performance I can understand why.

Weekend Wrap Up

I have several thoughts on my mind about several different subjects, but I do not really want to overwhelm my readers or myself with too many posts. So here is a quick roundup of entertainment, news, and sports. 

MUSIC 

I know I write about baseball a lot (see below for more), but I wanted to use a little space to highlight another great part about life in Venezuela- the music. Here they listen to all sorts of styles, from salsa to merengue to reggaetón to rock. I thought I might be able to help out those of you who trying to impress your friends by playing some music that’s hot in Caracas right now (which I guess is what I am trying to do too). So without further ado, here are eight songs that should get people moving, wherever you are:

Living with the Enemy

Not wishing to burden my friends here by staying with them for an extended period of time, I had been living in a hotel since my arrival in Caracas. This week I finally managed to move in to an apartment, which turned out not to be as easy as it sounds. There is a severe housing shortagein Venezuela, probably in the ballpark of a scarcity of two million units. However the investment environment here is not exactly conducive to new construction. First of all, times are tight and not many individuals or companies have the capital needed to finance such projects. Government support goes nearly exclusively to developments that provide housing at subsidized rates to political allies. Second, the government has a delightful habit of waiting for private structures to be built and then expropriating them to “give” to those that need them. So you see some buildings for commercial use under construction, because those are tougher to confiscate and convert into apartments, but not many residential ones. Third, the Venezuelan legal code favors housing ownership over rentals. Fourth, real estate owners looking for tenants employ very stringent background checks because the potential for delinquency is high. Finally, most owners prefer to have longer-term tenants than me.

A Life Changing Decision

There comes a time in every person's life when they are faced with a momentous and difficult decision. What career should I pursue? Am I ready to have children? Can I still be friends with UNC fans? Well for me one of those times has arrived.

Diplomatic Games and Intrigue

A couple of diplomatic incidents involving Venezuela seem to have made the news in the U.S. lately, so for that reason I am not going to comment on them in much detail. My own opinion is that they both involve much more smoke than fire. On Monday President Chávez officially welcomed Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to Miraflores (the Venezuelan White House). Both leaders had some good lines to share. Chávez spoke first and announced, "We are certainly going to work hard for bombs, for missiles, to keep fighting a war. Our war is against misery and poverty." Ahmadinejad then stepped it up a notch and declared, "Our weapon is logic, is culture and human values, our weapon is love," as John Lennon smiled down from heaven. 

The Playoff Picture Starts to Clear

With the semifinal round of the Venezuelan baseball league a third of the way completed, it looks like three teams will be fighting to finish in the top two spots and qualify for the championship series. Fortunately I am well-qualified to analyze two of them as I made the trip to Maracay yesterday to watch a second installment of the Tigers-Sharks rivalry. You may remember that on Monday I witnessed their first encounter, with the Tigers coming out 13-7 winners. Since then the Sharks had not lost again, winning three straight. The Tigers, on the other hand, had dropped two out of three, and another loss would have left them in big trouble since the defending champion Anzoátegui Carribeans had gotten off to a piping hot 5-0 start.

A Controversial Cabinet Appointment

The biggest news in Venezuela this weekend came out on Friday when President Chávez announced the appointment of a new Defense Minister: General Henry Rangel Silva. I would not expect many of my readers to recognize the name, but let's just say that his selection confirmed the worst fears of most antichavistas here. Silva first drew international attention in 2007 when, according to prosecutors' witnesses, the then-head of Venezuela's intelligence services was ordered by the President to direct a cover-up of the government's involvement in the infamous incident where a suitcase full of $800,000 in cash was discovered in the Buenos Aires airport. That money, it was determined, was part of a series of illicit contributions to the campaign of Argentine candidate, and now President, Cristina Fernández. A subsequent trial in Miami exposed the involvement of a series of high ranking officials in the Venezuelan government and in PDVSA, the state-run oil company. The coverage greatly embarrassed Chávez and caused considerable public relations damage to the government, despite Silva's best efforts.

The Biggest Issue in Venezuela

In most political campaigns, any number of issues can generally capture the attention of the electorate and serve as the deciding factor when evaluating a candidate. In the United States right now it is easy to imagine voters deciding that the most important problem to solve is how to create more jobs, improve health care, shrink the deficit, or end the war in Afghanistan, etc. In Venezuela, on the other hand, one issue supersedes all others: insecurity. Quite simply, safety conditions in much of the country are abysmal and deteriorating.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Last night I attended my inaugural baseball game in Venezuela, and I would have to say it was worth the wait. Yesterday marked the opening of the second stage of the season here. In the first, there is a 63 game schedule for each of the eight teams, at the end of which the top five teams qualify for what is called the semifinals or round robin. During the round robin each team plays a further 16 games, four against each opponent. The best two teams then advance to a best out of seven championship series.

In a quirk that Major League Baseball should adopt immediately, after the first round the five qualifying teams hold a four round draft to select players from the eliminated teams. This would have two galvanizing effects for MLB. First, it would improve competitive balance as small market teams, and even the Orioles, would have a better chance of signing their star players to long-term contracts. Adrian Gonzalez could have signed an extension to stay in San Diego secure in the knowledge that even if the club could not afford to build a strong team around him, he could still get picked up by the Red Sox for the playoffs. Second, it would ensure more star power in the postseason, improving TV ratings. Plus, how great would it have been in 2008 when the Tampa Bay Rays elected to take a situational left-handed reliever instead of Alex Rodriguez with their final pick and Derek Jeter was exposed as "not a true Brewer" after his 2/15 performance led to their elimination?

Meet The Candidates

With the Iowa caucuses set to kick off the U.S. presidential primary season, now is a good time to give a quick overview of the Venezuelan equivalent. As in the U.S., in Venezuela this year a primary will be held to choose a single candidate to run against President Hugo Chávez in the presidential election on October 7 (regional and local elections to follow after). Unlike in the U.S. there is no rolling set of statewide ballots; a single day of voting on February 12 will do the trick.

In contrast to elections past during Chávez's time in office, the opposition has promised to rally behind whoever wins the primary. Although candidates represent different political parties, they have united under the umbrella of the Unidad Democrática y de la Alternativa Democrática, referred to as Unidad (Unity). While the possibility exists that one of the losing candidates could pull a Ralph Nader and run as a third candidate in October, there are no signs yet that this will happen. In later posts I will attempt to present more comprehensive views of the biggest issues in the campaign, of the likelihood that Chávez could lose the October election (slim to none barring a catastrophic turn for the worse of his health), and a recap of what politics in Venezuela have been like in recent years. For now I thought it would be fun simply to give a thumbnail sketch of each opposition candidate as well as some idea of their chances of winning the primary. Without further ado, here they are, in alphabetical order:

Ringing in the New Year

A recap of the festivities of New Year's Eve seems as good a place as any to begin this blog, so here goes nothing. Looking back at last night, if there is one lesson I learned it is that Venezuelans of all sorts seem to be made of sterner stuff than us Americans. I spent the first half of the night at the Plaza Altamira, located strangely enough in the upscale Altamira neighborhood of Caracas. The plaza was adorned with Christmas decorations and a large stage where several excellent bands performed throughout the evening, and packed almost shoulder to shoulder with revelers. Nevertheless my focus throughout the night lay almost entirely on the streets surrounding the plaza, which appeared to be the scene of the latest Greek protests against further austerity measures. There, a most impressive display of fireworks craft and courage/disregard for the need for two functioning eyes took place over the course of several hours. Fireworks of every type imaginable were placed, set, thrown, waved, and shot into, over, and across the street, leaving plumes of smoke, small fires, and a veritable minefield of explosive devices for kids to joyfully navigate, sometimes with their parents in tow. During the peak levels of activity it looked as though a standoff was underway as crowds gathered across the street since nobody could possibly cross it to get to the plaza without suffering third degree burns.