A City That Never Sleeps

Welcome to Caracas. A city that never sleeps. A poor city, a slum city, a Hummer city, a country club city - choose, name whatever you like.

I for myself am not the country club type. Although I could be. After all, I spent part of my youth diving in those pools. Let me tell you - as a diplomat son, I find the country club life boring. Dull. So here I am, living in a mixed neighborhood, in a compound with an interesting vista of slum cities and the Caracas Twin Towers - the Parque Central - familiar to everybody who has stayed here more than 24 hours.

I will tell you some stories about how to live and survive in Caracas, declared the Crime Capital of Latin America and, according to unkind but true statistics, one of the most unsafe places on the globe to live in. Well, you know how statistics can be. Leon Trotsky, one of the idols of president Chávez, has once tried to slap a German delegation with a mountain of statistics. To which a German delegate, General Hoffmann, responded: "You can prove anything you like with statistics". There you go, Leon.

As I am sitting here, enjoying writing to you, I am listening to a salsa party outside my apartment. It´s Saturday Night, yesterday was payday, and many Venezuelans sure got a big pack of money, the "utilidades", or a sum equivalent to 30% of your wage multiplied by the months you worked in this year. Ain´t that generous. So, many caraqueños are partying this night, despite the rainy season. Two hopes I do have: 1) that people won´t be killing each other that much this weekend, and 2) they´ll let me have a good sleep.

Politics and regional elections? Chavez won, the opposition won, and for the first time in all those years I live here, I really don´t know whom to believe anymore. The world press is keeping mum about it, and so will I, for now. It´s not wise to comment on the Big Socialist Process of Mr. Chávez. So.... good night for now from Caracas!