Venezuela’s dictator is now celebrating his seven miserable years in power with self-satisfying congratulations and an obligatory trip to Fidel Castro in Cuba. This extravaganza is happening as Venezuelans find themselves poorer, bleaker and less free than ever before.

Teodoro Petkoff, an intrepid dissident editor of the left in Venezuela, writes a moving essay on the legacy of those seven years of Chavista failure here.

Daniel in Yaracuy has additional thoughts, and a new blogging project in the works on this same subject here.