In the village, the tinsel, fairy lights and coloured balls, the plastic pine trees, crackers and plump, scarlet Father Christmases go up one by one.
Children are good for once, blackmailed by the prospect of presents by the bucket.
The streets of El Pauji, a map-prick in the bush of southeastern Venezuela, have been deserted for weeks now. No-one meets in the evenings around the general store, or sits outside on plastic chairs sipping beers. The chickens seem to sense something is afoot. They cluck far from the houses and pick listlessly at dog-ends, eyes peeled. Families of Pemon Indians, who might have walked for days across the patchwork of plains and forests of the Gran Sabana, laden with food from their forest clearings, are re-united.