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.
So far I have found the city to be an odd mix of the West Coast (in that Maracaibo seems to define itself in part by its contrast to Caracas), New York (the loud and somewhat aggressive people), Nashville (it is a surprisingly small city, with its own distinctive style of music (gaita) and somehow I feel like I´m walking in downtown Nashvegas at times), and Valencia, Spain (there is a much, much smaller version of a Ciudad de las Ciencias park here and the city is situated on the water in a similar way). Anyway I´ll write more about my trip later, but right now I want to bang out this post in the next 10 minutes before festivities get underway in Caracas.
Today is the 20th anniversary of Hugo Chávez´s failed coup against the government of Carlos Andrés Pérez. A quick recap: in 1992 a coordinated action by a group of young military officers around the country was launched at around 11:00 pm on February 3. Everyone around the country achieved their objective except for Lieutenant Colonel Chávez, who was supposed to capture Caracas. He and his soldiers did manage to briefly take Miraflores, the Venezuelan White House, but the senior military leadership never accepted the coup and by the following morning it was clear that his plan had failed. Chávez surrendered to the authorities and was allowed to appear on television to broadcast a message of surrender to his fellow plotters. It was agreed that his words would be edited before they appeared on air, but somehow they never were. Instead his message that ¨Por ahora, los objetivos que nos hemos planteado no fueron logrados en la ciudad capital,¨ (For now, the objectives we planned were not achieved in the capital city,¨ instantly granted him national acclaim and popularity, although the coup itself had not attracted any popular support.
Every year the anniversary of the coup is celebrated, but this year since it is the 20th anniversary and since the President seems to be trying to take advantage of any opportunity possible to celebrate anything, there is a huge military parade planned in Caracas. In years past apparently this has included the spectacle of crashing helicopters, tanks billowing black smoke that obscures any view of the parade, and vehicles destroying roads for which they are too heavy. But the air force has been practicing all week in the skies above Caracas and they seem to be headed for a competent display, so I don´t want to miss it. Because Maracaibo does not seem to want to do anything Caracas does (and because its governor is one of the opposition candidates for president) there is no public celebration here.
Finally, I simply haven´t had time to write a proper recap of the end of the baseball season here, but I think it is important to tell everyone that my team, the Aragua Tigers, went on to win the championship series 4-2. They are now in the Dominican Republic participating in the Caribbean Series against the winners of the Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Mexican leagues. This used to be a huge deal in the region, but now really only is when it is Venezuela´s turn to host. The Tigers have dropped their first two games, all but eliminating them from contention.
I promise a better post about all things Maracaibo, baseball, and religious (I want to church last week! - more details coming soon) when I get a chance, but for now it´s off to find a TV.
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