It is now exactly one month since "Anna M" tied up in Chaguaramas. Her skipper has been getting to know the place and how to live with its hot sun alternating with deluges of rain, socializing (a little), writing, carrying out a good deal of maintenance, and trying to figure out how to remain financially sea-worthy as well! Twice it seemed that he had succeeded in putting together a party for the Orinoco, but on both occasions they fell apart. Finally I have to admit that it is not going to work. Why?

This last week about $20million's worth of cocaine has washed up on the eastern shores of Trinidad, along with 2 dead bodies, also 4 fishing pirogues have been robbed at gun-point of their outboard engines and fishing nets, and numerous homes in the same area have been raided in the early hours of the morning by gangs searching for cocaine. Meanwhile apparently the Venezuelan authorities are carrying out a big operation to clamp down on drug traffickers in the Orinoco Delta, from where the cocaine apparently came. The Orinoco flows down from the Colombian border and evidently has been providing a conduit for the drugs to the Atlantic and so on to Europe and North America.

Meanwhile in recent months several yachts have suffered armed attack off the Peninsula de Paria on the western side of Trinidad. A particularly disturbing aspect of these attacks was that the robbers were very well armed and equipped, complete with bullet-proof vests. We are not talking of poor people, and it is not impossible even that we are dealing with maverick elements in the Venezuelan army or police.

Nonetheless I shall head west along the Venezuelan coast when I leave here; I could not bear to be so close to such a wonderful cruising ground without visiting it. There are other reasons for doing so, which should become clearer if you read my notes on the back-ground in Venezuela below. But anyway I do not consider the risk of doing so as bad as that of taking a taxi into Port of Spain, for example, provided one sticks to the off-shore islands for the first part of the trip at least. The robberies have so far all occured close inshore; it is boats struggling back east against the wind and current that are mostly at risk. When the hurricane season is over, I shall cut up straight for the Virgin Islands, and then who knows? I shall have another try at day-chartering there in the winter, unless someone comes along with an offer that I cannot refuse for the "Anna M".

Notes on the political and social situation in Venezuela.
One basic factor that tells a lot is the rate of inflation. In 1980 the US$ was worth just 4.5Bs - four and a half Bolivares. Today it can buy 2,500Bs on the black market - yes, two thousand and five hundred. The official rate is something in the region of 1,700Bs to the US$.

The country began the year 2003 in a state of paralysis by general strike (El Paro), that had begun on December 2, 2002, and ended 63 days later on February 3rd, 2003. It caused irreversible damage to some oil wells, and no doubt to many other businesses as well, and hardly helped the economic situation. Still, Venezuela is one of those countries that are endowed with truly magnificent natural resources and great wealth, while many live in misery. Its current President, Hugo Chavez, was elected with a massive popular vote on a platform that promised to address this situation, and provide access to the country's wealth for its many deprived and impoverished citizens. El Paro was a politically motivated strike, rather more it would seem in the nature of a lock-out, of which the prime objective was to bring his government down, and to bring his "Bolivarian Revolution" to an end.

While based on the ideals of Simon Bolivar, the great national liberator who died in 1830, the Bolivarian Revolution represents an aspiration very widely shared especially in the developing world, of finding 'a third way', since neither communism nor neo-liberalism have proved acceptable, the latter resulting in an ever deeper plunge into poverty for the majority, even while the rich getter richer still. In the words of Professor Cathy Jensen de Sanchez, a USamerican who lives in Venezuela, from an article in the August 2003 edition of 'Caribbean Compass', the Third Way aims to 'develop programs favoring those traditionally barred from access to economic opportunities while simultaneously maintaining and encouraging traditional entrepreneurship'.

Still, it all sounds much like dressed-up communism in some quarters, although President Chavez is democratically elected and has to function in the teeth of largely hostile media. In Professor de Sanchez' words again, he has to contend with 'political corruption that has been nurtured for years, vested interests on all sides, national and international opposition coalitions backed by unimaginable amounts of money, media manipulation and disinformation....' He has had to work so hard just to stay in office that one suspects there has not been much time for developing those famous programs. Still, maybe the fact that he weathered El Paro represents some kind of turning point. We shall just have to wait and see whether the Bolivarian Revolution will fare any better than most other revolutions have done.

It seems to me that this great drama is something that we Irish should take a particular interest in. Even if we cannot do much to help, at least we should do what we can to express our sympathy and support. I shall be showing the Irish flag on the Venezuelan coast with particular pride.