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Economics

The Manhattan of Venezuela Parties Against a Backdrop of Crisis

Caracas’s epicenter of unrest also offers its best nightlife.
Alexandra Lovera (standing) takes a shot at the posh restaurant La Esquina, which is popular among high society, in Chacao on July 14, 2017.

Alexandra Lovera (standing) takes a shot at the posh restaurant La Esquina, which is popular among high society, in Chacao on July 14, 2017.

Photographer: Meridith Kohut/Bloomberg
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In the courtyard of La Esquina, a restaurant in Caracas’s upscale Chacao district, Alexandra Lovera lived the more pleasant half of her double life.

The 24-year-old culinary student and frequent protester of Venezuela’s authoritarian government was among a birthday party that also included a television host, a baseball agent and a gaggle of business owners. They were smoking a hookah and knocking back sangria and whiskey.