So we’ve found an apartment. It’s too expensive, but we needed something. It’s also deep within sifrinolandia, the fortified state-within-a-state of the wealthy opposition. The food still sucks and is too expensive, and one must always suffer the presence of escualidos, but it’s a great place otherwise.

How did we infiltrate the opposition once again? Not as easy as it sounds: Chacao is, according to recent electoral results, approximately 80% opposition (not bad, considering). When one considers, moreover, those who own property, the proportion is most likely closer to 90%.

We, however, managed to find a Chavista. And not just any Chavista, but an Argentinean Peronista and close personal friend of Juan Perón during the latter’s brief 1955 exile in Venezuela.  

I showed up at the apartment planning to avoid political discussion at all costs, but the landlord soon launched into a discussion of crime, asserting that the incredible violence of the capital is not the result of Chavismo, but rather of the 1980s. In this, he is correct: while the opposition likes to emphasize insecurity and violence to discredit Chávez, murder rates in Caracas increased most rapidly between 1986 and 1989, when they tripled alongside the implementation of the neoliberal reforms. 

So once he mentioned that, I spoke more freely, and our political sympathies were in the end crucial to securing the place…