Cuba Invades Venezuela
Mac Margolis
Cuba may be a fading star in the socialist firmament and run by a
sclerotic dynasty, but don't tell Hugo Chávez. The Venezuelan president
is giving the Castro franchise a second life by farming out more and
more of his crisis-battered government to Havana. A growing number of
corner offices in Chávez's bureaucracy--including defense, national
security, police, immigration control, and now energy--are occupied by
Castrocrats. Ramiro Valdés, Fidel's former comrade in arms and an
ex-interior minister, was recently picked to coordinate Venezuela's
response to an energy emergency causing widespread blackouts. (Critics
note that Cuba has long been afflicted by power failures.) Chávez's foes
suspect that Valdés, famed for policing the Internet in Cuba, was hired
to spy on Venezuelan dissidents. Other Havanians are serving as key
advisers in the Defense Ministry and the newly reformed Bolivarian
National Intelligence Service, and dealing on Caracas's behalf with
trade unions, coffee growers, and hospitals (apparently the final straw
for the health minister, who quit on Feb. 10). Chávez argues that no one
is better prepared to handle domestic crises than the Cubans. Most
Venezuelans shudder for the same reason.
Cuba Invades Venezuela - Wealth of Nations Blog - Newsweek.com (15
February 2010)
http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/wealthofnations/archive/2010/02/15/cuba-invades-venezuela.aspx
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