Theme: Business and Economics

Plan Caracas, 1974-1976 (revisited)

Densely populated shantytowns grow organically in the hills around Caracas. But I don’t practice sociological tourism. This text is more about the self-explanations of a Caracas-born son of immigrants. Immigration in this sense can be seen as a slower and more pragmatic form of tourism. My parents’ families arrived to Caracas between the 30s and the 50s, when global populations were reacting to the convulsion generated by …

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Between Ideological Affinity and Economic Convenience: A Web Feature

Foreign relations between Venezuela and Argentina became closer after Néstor Kirchner took office as president of the latter country in May 2003. He came to power with a meagre 22.3% of the popular vote, thanks to former president Menem’s refusal to run in the ballotage. At that moment Argentina was trying to emerge from the deepest political, economic and institutional crisis in its history. A massive social protest around the …

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Venezuela: Leading a New Trend in Latin America? An Internationalist Vision

Hugo Chávez was elected president of Venezuela in 1998 as the result of a demand for radical change expressed by Venezuelan voters. His election also appeared to mark a wave of New Left electoral victories as Latin Americans used the ballot box to express their frustration with failed promises of market opening and democratic restoration to improve living standards of Latin Americans in the 1980s and 1990s. Following Chávez’s …

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Oil and Revolution: Viewpoints Edited

The oil policy preva- lent in Venezuela during the 1990s, better known as the “aperture” (i.e. aperture-open- ing), called for maximizing the country’s production capacity in-country by attracting foreign oil companies to participate in the development of Venezuela’s oil infrastructure and, ultimately, to maximize production. unfortunately, the involvement of foreign oil companies came at a steep cost since the “incentives” offered led to a collapse in the country’s fiscal income which, in turn,

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It’s the Oil, Stupid!!! An Overview

This apparent truism of “It’s the oil, stupid!” makes sense without being really true. Certainly, as the embodiment of immense wealth and energy, oil appears to be a force capable of defining the destiny of modern nations. Yet this appearance is deceptive. Oil does condition but does not determine the social life of these nations. To understand this, it is enough to observe that oil has radically different effects in different oil producing …

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