Looking for some holiday cheer as rumors swirl

[Venezuela, from A1]

- 

can nation that has suffered a decade of hyperinflation, ravaged wages, lost savings, mass displacement and migration — the equivalent of multiple Great Depressions.

But the rumors of war, and peace — and all manner of other developments, from the trivial to the momentous — are never far away, even as shoppers make their way through storefronts and well-lighted malls brimming with holiday fare, much of it beyond most family budgets.

A lot of the swirling chatter cloud involves Maria Corina Machado, the Venezuelan opposition activist and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. She lives “in hiding” in the capital, though the government’s pervasive security apparatus probably watches her movements closely.

After days of conflicting reports about her whereabouts, Machado showed up in Oslo a day after the Nobel award ceremony, reportedly after a covert, U.S.-aided voyage via land, sea and private jet. Thousands of ecstatic supporters greeted her in the Norwegian capital, a publicity coup for the opposition and another round of bad optics for Maduro’s embattled administration.

Though Machado did make it to Norway, the Venezuelan rumor mill still churned out theories about her arrival.