From the Beginning

The repression in Venezuela after the presidential election

2013-04-20T12:34:00.001-04:30

Authors: José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net In the protests following the Venezuelan presidential elections of April 14, we highlight some topics about the government procedures to maintain the order: 1. The authorities primarily sent paramilitary forces of the ruling party to combat the street demonstrations, making the violence worse. 2.

"No immediate pro-democratic change in Venezuela"

2013-02-21T16:10:00.001-04:30

Authors: José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net Politikantrop published and interview in which the Ukrainian political scientist and journalist, Viktor Kaspruk, spoke with us about the current Venezuelan politics. You can read the entire publication by clicking here. These are some fragments of the interview: "The Bolivarian model is autocratic

Chavista mismanagement: New source of risk for oil market

2012-09-21T11:59:00.000-04:30

Authors: José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net Political instability in Middle East, a terrorist attack in Nigeria or Colombia, and a nationalization process in some part of Latin America are the classic problems that confront the international oil production. However, in Venezuela, the Chavez government has introduced a new way to frequently

Chavez near Pinochet's record

2012-07-20T10:38:00.001-04:30

Authors: José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net Augusto Pinochet was the head of the Chilean government for nearly 17 years, one of the longest authoritarian regimes in Latin America. The South American general surpassed in duration others of his class, as Marcos Perez Jimenez and Alberto Fujimori. President Hugo Chavez's government has 14-year in

Lower oil prices are good, but for whom?

2012-05-26T14:23:00.000-04:30

Authors: José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net "High oil prices pose a real threat to the global economic recovery", told the International Energy Agency (IEA) recently, but it depends on the point of view. From the industrialized countries to the Third World, oil is essential for development. The problem is that this natural resource is the main

From Günter Grass to "Ozzie" Guillen

2012-04-17T14:03:00.000-04:30

Authors: José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net We support the Jews people on many issues, and we are critics of the Cuban dictatorship and the Iranian regime. However, we are dissatisfied with the sanctions applied to Günter Grass and Oswaldo Guillen for their remarks about Middle East and Cuba. How would we react if a Cuban baseball manager were

Polls for Venezuela's presidential election

2012-03-17T14:28:00.001-04:30

Authors: José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net There will be presidential election in Venezuela on October 7. In this race, Hugo Chavez Frias, representing the incumbent party, will compete against Henrique Capriles Radonsky, the opposition's candidate. The first public opinion reports about this election show that the current president has a

Venezuela: Capriles or the uncertainty?

2012-03-02T10:46:00.000-04:30

Authors: José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net Will Hugo Chavez remain in power until the presidential elections? How sick is he? Is there someone in his party that can replace him? Can he make a successful campaign under such conditions? There will be presidential elections on October 7? What can happen in Venezuela if Chavez dies? At this moment,

Venezuela-USA relations and Chavez's new Defense Minister

2012-02-16T10:35:00.000-04:30

Authors: José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net Chavez names new Defense Minister a man that is being accused by Washington, since 2008, of aiding drug traffickers and arming rebels in neighboring Colombia, a decision that have implications in the domestic politics and in the international sphere. In this occasion, our interest will be the external

The GOP primaries: Outsiders only

2012-01-23T15:03:00.000-04:30

Authors: Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri and José Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net Ron Paul is near the ideals of libertarianism, far from the neoconservatism that reign in the GOP hawks. Newt Gingrich is Catholic, like Rick Santorum; and Mitt Ronmey is Mormon, like Jon Huntsman. These are not the most representative religions of "the Founding Fathers of the United States".

Possible devaluation of the Venezuelan currency in 2012

2012-01-14T12:15:00.000-04:30

Authors: José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net Every year of chavismo means for the Venezuelan currency, the bolivar, the risk of another maxi-devaluation. The two fixed exchange rates established by the government , CADIVI and SITME, are now at 4,3 and 5,3 per dollar respectively, with no probable modification to the CADIVI regime during this year

Marxism inside the Socialism of the 21st century

2012-01-04T15:50:00.000-04:30

Authors: José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net In a forum entitled "Socialism: theory and history", dictated in Cumaná, Venezuela, we presented to the assistants information about the socialist ideology, making emphasis in the Venezuelan government's version of this political philosophy. There, we described the Socialism of the 21st century as a

Spain shifts to the right: Implications for Latin America

2011-11-23T14:40:00.001-04:30

Authors: José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net Spain is one of the most influential nations in the Spanish-speaking America in every way (culture, politics, economics, fashion, etc..). Therefore, many of the things that happen in this country have implications for Latin American, and that the People's Party, the Spanish right, has won the

The Copenhagen criteria and Latin America

2011-11-19T13:58:00.000-04:30

Authors: Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri and José Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net One of the myths of the radical left in Latin America ensures that the model of State of politicians like Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro is the same that prevails in countries like Sweden, Denmark and Spain. Ironically, in one of these societies that leftists in Latin America take as example of

Chile: Leftist indignation after 20 years?

2011-10-19T15:51:00.000-04:30

Authors: Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri and José Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net The left ruled in Chile for 20 consecutive years. During this period, the only time of great political instability occurred at the beginning of the government of Michelle Bachelet, in 2006, when strong student protests demanded improvements in public education, but the issue was quickly resolved. After

Polls for Nicaragua's presidential election

2011-09-28T15:41:00.001-04:30

Authors: José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net The upcoming November 6 there will be general election in Nicaragua to choose the president and parliament, event in which the main Central American ally of the ALBA, Daniel Ortega, will seek re-election despite the fact that none of the 202 articles of the Constitution of that country states that a

How Chavez would return after "cancer"

2011-08-26T16:47:00.003-04:30

Authors: Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri and José Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net After his failure in the violent 1992 coup, Hugo Chavez changed his strategy, he put on a mask, speaking of democracy, quoting Rousseau, Montesquieu, and criticizing the Cuban dictatorship to gain the trust of millions, but in 1999, after winning the presidency, Chavez began a campaign of discrimination,

The "cancer" as a Chavista strategy for 2012

2011-08-05T11:03:00.000-04:30

Authors: José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net Chavez brings a set of electoral strategies to address the 2012 presidential election. Of these, the hypothetical "cancer", briefly defeated by the Lieutenant Colonel, leads the repertoire displayed by the Venezuelan government, dish served with several adjustments to the worn image of the Bolivarian

Polls for Argentina's presidential election

2011-07-11T15:40:00.000-04:30

Authors: José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net Argentines will go to elections on 23 October, in a process that would be two rounds unless one of these conditions are met: 1) a candidate obtains 45% of the vote in the first round, or 2) a candidate obtains 40% of the vote with at least a 10% margin over the second place candidate. According to the

Chavez has cancer! Is it showtime?

2011-06-30T16:46:00.002-04:30

Authors: José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net Chavez's disappearance is a mystery. Speculations fly: he has cancer, he's dead, he is wounded, he is planning something with Fidel, a medical source said this, a newspaper in Miami said that, Nelson Bocaranda said such a thing in his "runrunes", etc., keeping the Venezuelan people and the world in a

"La Gran Recesión y la Izquierda" on Amazon.com

2011-06-21T15:48:00.000-04:30

Authors: José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net &amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;A HREF="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?rt=tf_mfw&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;

Cuba: Tobacco dollars over public health

2011-06-10T10:56:00.001-04:30

Authors: Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri and José Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net In a section of the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth", Al Gore talks on the topic of smoking and its harmful effects on human life, but this piece of the film seems to be ignored by Fidel Castro and the Cuban communists, although they are apparently anti-global-warming activists. Much of the civilized

"The Latin American left is leaning to the center"

2011-06-08T14:49:00.002-04:30

Authors: José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net The prestigious publication "The Christian Science Monitor" published an interview in which the journalist Sara Miller spoke with us about the Peruvian elections (click here to read it in full). Luis Alberto said to this news agency that since the arrival of Ortega to Nicaragua's presidency in 2007, no

Kidnapping, the face of the Chavista security policy failure

2011-06-04T15:02:00.000-04:30

Authors: José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net The Chavez government has failed miserably in public security policies, to the point that the authorities no longer give official figures on the exact number of crimes being committed daily in Venezuela, hoping that, in this way, the population will not be aware of the government's inability on the

"La Gran Recesión y la Izquierda": Presentation in Cumaná

2011-05-27T10:44:00.001-04:30

Authors: José Alberto López Rafaschieri and Luis Alberto López Rafaschieri www.morochos.net Accompanied by family and friends, we presented our book "La Gran Recesión y la Izquierda" at the Casa Ramos Sucre, in Cumana, Sucre state, Venezuela. Before the event began, we were interviewed by the local media, speaking about the book and the political-economic conditions in Venezuela. After opening