Parrots screeched in the trees, ripening mangoes hung from the branches, and the South American diplomat was creased up in a wicker chair in his garden, laughing at my attempts to explain Venezuela in a clear, analytical fashion. I was in louche, lush Caracas again – for the first time since I lived there when Hugo Chávez first swept to power in the 1998 presidential election. But I was being “too logical,” the ambassador told me. “The first thing about Venezuela is that it doesn't make sense. The second is it doesn't work, and never did.”
鸚鵡在樹上尖聲叫著，枝條上掛著尚未熟透的芒果，一位南美外交官坐在自家花園里的一把藤椅上，被我逗得放聲大笑——我在嘗試用一種清晰的解析方式來詮釋委內瑞拉。我又一次來到了委內瑞拉聲名狼藉、綠樹成蔭的首都加拉加斯——上一次我在這里還是1998年，當時烏戈?查韋斯(Hugo Chavez)第一次贏得總統大選上臺。但這位大使告訴我，我“過于邏輯化了”。“要想搞懂委內瑞拉，首先要明白，它是不可理喻的。其次是，它運轉失靈，且從未運轉正常過。”