Chávez’s anti-gringo rhetoric forms the basis of his appeal, but new evidence (which may gull the gullible and disturb yet the already disturbed) suggests that the guiri–the Spanish gringo–may have actually originated in what should perhaps be renamed the República Guiriana. Here’s Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo in Historia general y natural de las Indias (1535) [...]

The last time I was in Caracas a general parked his tank outside the national assembly building and the chamber maid died of cholera. Things haven’t improved since, and Hugo Chávez’s infant daughter has just thrown a spanner in the works of the historic Bonaire invasion project by telling him to drop everything else until [...]

I already knew that Sant Pau in Sant Pol de Mar (walk) was a damn fine restaurant (Carme Ruscalleda has just bagged her third Michelin star). What I didn’t know is that, since April Fool’s 2004, aeroplane-averse Japanese have been able to patronise a replica in Tokyo. I hereby offer to fix their English in [...]