At the top of the Altamira Suites in Caracas there is a bar where well-heeled Venezuelans sip cocktails while their Blackberries flicker on glass tabletops. From the roof there is a view across the city, a landscape of skyscrapers branded with the names of western corporations. The Four Seasons Hotel designed in the style of a boat, floats across a sea of lights that twinkle amiably from the distant hillsides of Petare, one of Latin America’s largest slums.
 
But the clientele are not sitting comfortably. Accidentally pay at the bar with your foreign credit card and the round will cost you several hundred dollars. You’ve become a victim to the gap between the official and black market exchange rates. 

A few hundred dollars down and things don’t seem so rosy. The great sail of the Four Seasons is a painful reminder of the Caracas Hilton, expropriated, nationalised and rebranded. Today its rooms are occupied by Cuban delegations and red-clad government officials. Welcome to Hotel Hugo. 

The skyscraping pillars of western corporations seem a little shaky too. Proctor & Gamble are not at home; their Latin America headquarters has been relocated to Costa Rica. Other businesses which have fallen foul of the regime await arbitration in the international courts. 

And it is with hesitation that you leave your car on the street at night. The streets are not as safe as they used to be, we are warned. The divisions between the Petares and Altamiras finding expression in increased levels of violence. 

To our untutored eyes Caracas seemed the city of the eternal spring, a flourishing modern metropolis in an alpine climate. The Venezuelans we met were quick to disabuse us of this fantasy. Caracas, they said, is a shadow of its former self. Life is chaos. The price of products in the shops increases weekly, while corrupt officials stockpile food in containers which is later found rotting. Government hand-outs create a disincentive to work and rubbish accumulates on the streets. 

“Tremble bourgeoisie! Long live the Bolivarian Revolution!” Chavez’s recent words are reminiscent of the poem Ozymandias.

But Venezuelans are optimistic. Venezuela is still the best country in the world, they say, it’s just that Venezuela with Chavez is number two.