Anyone with any p.r. sense will tell you that the most ignored news is that which is released when everyone is heading to a holiday or already there. This past holiday season saw some interesting news both in Venezuela and elsewhere in the region that I just want to make sure didn't go unnoticed. Here are a few items:
Congratulations to Brian Nelson for making the Economist's Books of the Year list:
A scrupulous account of one of the most important, yet most misunderstood, events in recent South American history. It should be read by all those who believe that Hugo Chávez is a worthy champion of democracy and the oppressed.
See our interview with him last August here.
Jeremy Morgan of the LAHT takes a stroll into Caracas' most dangerous neighbourhood and finds the following:
It's getting close to rush hour and long queues are forming to buy tickets to go home. Suddenly, two men streak up the escalator from the trains and leap over the ticket barrier. In close and hot pursuit are about a dozen other men, all shouting as they go after their men.
Neither of them gets away. One is dragged down the steps leading up to the street and manhandled to the floor, where three men set about him with heavy blows to the head. The other tries to escape into the scatterring crowd of petrified onlookers, but he's caught, too, and suffers a similar fate. And then, just as abruptly as it began, it's all over and done with.
This is Sucre, a poor district of Catia, just a kilometre from Miraflores. What makes it the most dangerous neighbourhood?
- An average of atleast one murder a day
- Serious injuries inflicted by violence on three people a day
- Buses confront at least 15 armed robberies every day
- 295 unlawfull killings during the first half of this 2009, and a further 120 since
- Approximately 28 different gangs fighting over turf
Read more here.
The Devil's Excrement discusses Rafael Caldera's death
La Verdad publishes letters from political prisoners calling for justice and unity in the new year here (in Spanish).
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