Venezuela has entered a phase of stable and sustainable growth”, boasted Finance Minister Jorge Giordani upon presentation the latest GDP results. Giordani noted that following third quarter GDP growth of 5.2% year-on-year, the government had already beaten its 5.0% growth target for the year. He also emphasised falling inflation, which has come down steadily this year. Many private analysts, however, argue that the current growth, which rests on a major increase in public spending this election year (and a surge in imports to meet domestic demand), is both ephemeral and unsustainable and may collapse in 2013. There is also mounting…

In Caracas on 12 December Vice President and Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro announced after six hours of a “complex, difficult, delicate operation," in Cuba to remove cancerous tissue President Hugo Chávez faced a complex and hard post-operative process”. Chávez returned to Havana for an extended period for further medical treatment on 9 December, a day after he declared his number two Nicolás Maduro as his preferred successor in the event of his departure from power. Maduro’s anointment was long expected but it was the first time that Chávez had ever addressed in public the issue of his succession. Clearly, he…