Monthly Archives: February 2011

The Economist has an article about the chances of a Venezuelan bond default. It manages to go the whole story without mentioning that news articles about the risks of Venezuelan debt are something of a self-fulfilling prophecy, as people get … Continue reading →

Some editorial writer in El Tiempo (a newspaper supposedly owned by the family of Colombia’s president, Juan Manual Santos, says coal companies should pay more royalties. The railway that hauls from country’s biggest coal mine gets blown up again. And … Continue reading →

Ending updated Venezuela’s on-again, off-again approach to fuel sales to Iran has become more intriguing in recent weeks, since Reuters published a story saying that Venezuela had shipped two cargoes of fuel. It would be of purely passing interest except … Continue reading →

“A common visitor at SJO,” plane spotter Tomás Cubero says of N56LP. SJO is the international airport at San Jose, Costa Rica. Registered to “LP AIRCRAFT GROUP LLC…C/O HIGHVIEW POINT PARTNERS LLC,” the FAA says of N56LP. Highview Point is … Continue reading →

One of the first posts on this website was about the ongoing crisis in Caracas’s drinking water system. The drought last year made the crisis more obvious, but as I said at the time, there was a structural deficit in … Continue reading →

OK, I guess I’m back to all Venezuela, all the time. Site friend Kepler points me to this story: Venezuela may acquire the assets of the Belarusian oil refineries in the near future. This was stated by the Belarusian Ambassador … Continue reading →

Nova Scotia, which long ago took Venezuela to arbitration for ending shipments of Orimulsion fuel, has opened a new proceeding at the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), according to the organization’s website. Crystallex International Corp. says … Continue reading →

A securities fraud case in Connecticut has opened a window into how Petroleos de Venezuela SA’s pension fund apparently speculates in Venezuelan currency transactions — a business that is illegal in Venezuela. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has interrupted … Continue reading →

Gasoline consumption rises. Four-fold in 12 years in Venezuela, according to El Nacional. Please keep that in mind next time President Hugo Chavez stands on principle to block a climate-change resolution.

So yesterday, I get this provocative comment on my post “Chevron-Kroll story shows how companies recruit reporters:” At first, I replied by reiterating what I said in the story — mostly that this Chien Andalou should go look at the … Continue reading →