Blessed are those with Venezuelan Passports


The more you listen to these endless ideological debates going on about Venezuela under Chávez, the more you realize how useless and ridiculous they are in terms of solving every day problems afflicting ordinary Venezuelan citizens.

So it doesn't come as much of a surprise to hear the Venezuelan Consul General in Boston during a Q&A session that followed Fernando Coronil's lecture at Harvard today, spouting this little gem in front of a mostly non-Venezuelan audience: Before Chávez we had 40 years of corruption, now we don't. He seemed agitated while saying it, waving in his hand a fancy brochure that he invited us to pick up at his Consular office, a place which is open to everyone who wishes to have a little chat with him about the merits of the revolution, dissenters excluded, of course.

Just imagine, wouldn't it be nice, to be a citizen of a country whose consular personnel were just as passionate about going after their regular consular duties such as issuing passports to their citizens as our Consul General is about distributing political pamphlets?

Crude Matters in Boston


Just in time for Christmas a huge shipment of discounted heating oil for poor families in Boston arrived at Citgo's Washington Street terminal. As reported by the Boston Globe, there they were, the Citgo executives, sporting their revolutionary red jackets, along side local dignitaries, and you know who you are, standing in the cold, bitching about the lack of compassion of American oil companies and praising the Venezuelan Government's solidarity with the poor and disenfranchised. In short, the perfect public relations moment. Who could argue against such a noble cause? Hmm, what was that famous phrase again attributed to Tip O'Neill? Oh yeah, all politics is local.

Suggestion to the Venezuelan Government: How about taking care of your own people at home and, dare we say it, here in Boston? That's right folks, here in Boston! Believe it or not, our beloved Venezuelan Consulate seems to be unable or maybe unwilling to issue passports to regular Venezuelan citizen's residing in the New England Area. Apparently, there is a huge waiting list and only those who are privileged enough to know somebody in the upper echelons of the government or those who have had a death in the family can expect expeditious service. The rest of us mere mortals are condemned to eternal passport hell.

Crude Matters at Harvard


For those of you who have nothing better to do this Friday afternoon, the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies at Harvard University is hosting the following event: Crude Matters: The 2002 Coup Against Hugo Chávez and its Aftermath, Lecture by Fernando Coronil.

Considering recent events in Venezuela, the second part of the lecture's title seems a little dated. Maybe it should read ...and the Aftermath of its Aftermath ;-). Nevertheless, the speaker's credentials should allow for an interesting talk. Here is the complete information:

Date: Friday, December 14, 2007
Time: 4:30 pm - 6 pm
Contact: Monica Tesorio, smtesor@fas.harvard.edu
Location: CGIS South, Belfer Case Study Room, S-020, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge

Fernando Coronil, Associate Professor of Anthropology and History, University of Michigan; 2004 Cisneros Visiting Scholar, DRCLAS; and author of The Magical State: Nature, Money, and Modernity in Venezuela

Alta abstención electoral en el exterior


En el Blog notiven han posteado de manera libre y desordenada algunos de los resultados de la votación en el exterior del pasado 2 de Diciembre. En la mayoría de los consulados o embajadas ganó el NO. Sin embargo, aunque en algunos posts no incluyen el porcentaje de abstención, en aquellos que incluyen esta información, el porcentaje oscila entre el 50 y 75%.

Your Victory is Shit

CARACAS, Dec 5 (Reuters) - President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday called the Venezuelan opposition's unprecedented victory in the weekend's referendum shit, signaling the firebrand former soldier was back on the offensive after initially humbly accepting his loss... more

Say what?

Los micros de Sinergía

Según un artículo publicado en El Universal:
El Consejo Nacional Electoral (CNE) decidió suspender la transmisión de la cuña del bloque del NO en la versión aprendiendo y los micros de Sinergia, donde actores de teatro simulan un debate sobre la reforma constitucional...
Lee la respuesta de Sinergia ante la prohibición del CNE aquí.

Escucha los micros aquí.