Recently in my own community, one branch of the government has taken to openly violating some enshrined rights under the constitution using their own legislation that clearly violates the rights of the people. The acceptance in using the legal system to remove the rights of citizens that are governed under a constitution were surprisingly permitted. […]
Hugo Chavez should be officially sworn into office on January 10. But with Chavez’s advanced cancer and his recently announced “complications,” it is unclear who will lead the country in 2013. Here is a brief primer. As Tim Padgett recently argued, Venezuela’s Bolivarian constitution provides a “murky map” on matters of incapacity and succession. The […]
Despite a strong showing by Henrique Capriles Radonski, not surprisingly Hugo Chavez emerged victorious from Venezuela’s presidential election on Oct. 7, 2012. He won 54% of the vote to Capriles’ 45%. Over 80% of eligible voters participated, with little to no reports of fraud or coercion that I’ve read. While still a comfortable margin, Capriles’ […]
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 […]
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