The government of Hugo Chávez (Fidel Castro’s protegé and ally) is implementing a “good life card” similar to the rationing booklet used in Cuba, a day after farmer Franklin Brito died from a hunger strike, caused by the Venezuelan government seizing his farm. The creation of the card is taking place in the midst of a two year recession and shortages of food in Venezuela. [ABC]
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Hugo Chávez met yesterday with Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl Castro for about five hours during a visit that was not previously announced. [El Universal]
Tags: Fidel Castro, Havana, Hugo Chavez, Raul Castro
The Financial Times‘s Latin America editor and author of “The Sugar King of Havana: the Rise and Fall of Julio Lobo, Cuba’s Last Tycoon“ writes about the maladministration of Venezuela and Cuba’s machinations in Caracas:
Incompetence even helps explain the closeness of Venezuelan ties with Cuba. Two of the few state functions that do work reasonably well are Mr Chávez’s intelligence service and the social missions that deliver basic healthcare to Venezuela’s poor. Both, though, are primarily delivered not by Venezuelans but by Cubans, working in the country as doctors and attachés, in return for cheap oil.
As a European diplomat explained, whenever he has wanted to finesse a tricky point with the Venezuelan government he has often run it past the Cuban attachés first, because they could explain it in terms Venezuelans might accept and understand. “The Cubans are diplomatic adepts, and know which battles to fight,” he said. “The Venezuelans … see enemies behind every tree.” Because of this, Cuba might even have found itself a new global strategic role: Venezuela’s interlocutor to the rest of the world.
Tags: Cuba, Financial Times, Hugo Chavez, Venezuela
Today’s ABC (one of Spain’s influential dailies) has an opinion piece on Raúl Castro’s silence during the 26 of July celebration in Santa Clara on Monday, which is indicative of a “resounding plea for more ferocious inaction”:
Raúl’s silence compared with the speeches he made in previous years, which threw light promises—has been a resounding plea for fiercer inaction. The slogan of the day was that of economic integration with Venezuela, something that cannot comfort anyone since Hugo Chávez—who, incidentally, also came to the appointment of the Castro brothers, is an expert in carrying an oil country to utter ruin.
The entire piece is here.
(Image: Periódico26.cu)
Tags: Hugo Chavez, July 26, Moncada, Raul Castro
Jerry Bremer, CEO of Criminal Justice International Associates via Mexidata.com asks whether Cuba continues to pose a security risk to anyone in the Western Hemisphere:
Cuba’s Interior Ministry reportedly consists of approximately 20,000 officials assigned to their security and intelligence apparatus, along with an estimated 50,000 Cuban nationals in various official missions in Venezuela.
Castro’s resource starved revolution has been nurtured generously by President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. The Castro brother’s personal wealth has been estimated as “combined — easily worth $2 billion.” The Chavez Frias family in Venezuela “has amassed wealth on a similar scale since Chavez’s presidency began in 1999.”
[...]
Cuba had been getting approximately $5 billion a year from Venezuela in “oil, cash and kind.” It is further believed that Bolivarian organized crime groups entrenched within Chavez’s administration “have skimmed about $100 billion of the nearly $1 trillion of oil revenues PDVSA Oil has earned since 1999.”
[...]
Both Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez continue to telegraph nervous vibes to true democratic and free nations with their vociferous support of Iran, Syria and North Korea, among others named as state sponsors of world terrorism, this as well as denouncing Israel and the U.S. The Castro and Chavez revolutions are indeed suspect, insofar as neither appears to benefit the suffering of the Cuban nor Venezuelan people.
Cuba is much less armed and resourced to defend a revolution by itself. If the Castro brothers and Chavez truly want to stand up factually to defend a benign threat to the hemisphere, as well as lead their people to a higher standard of survival and living conditions, they must aggressively denounce terrorism, drug trafficking, and related death and violence. Their actions in this positive step might show some genuine sincerity.
Tags: Bolivarian organized crime groups, Cuba, Cuba’s Interior Ministry, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Iran, Israel, North Korea, security risk, Syria, U.S., Venezuela, Western Hemisphere
The Financial Times’ Beyond Brics Blog on the Castro brothers hedging their geo-strategic bets on Venezuela’s economic risks:
The faceless capitalists of Wall Street have long considered Venezuela a “sell” – the oil producing country’s foreign currency bonds are considered almost twice as risky as Greece’s. But might even Cuba’s revolutionary gerontocracy now believe the same?
For those who like to look at the world through the lens of financial conspiracies, that’s one tentative reading of why Cuba pledged last week to release 52 political prisoners. Yes, the issue was attracting unwelcome international attention. But it is also true that throughout its history, Cuba has been a master at playing its geo-strategic cards. The US and the USSR used to play the role of sugar daddy to the country before. Lately it’s been President Hugo Chávez’s Venezuela. But Venezuela’s economy, like Cuba’s, is now in a mess.
Any move that suggests Cuba wants to improve ties with the US – and freeing political prisoners is one step that could ease the US travel ban and, ultimately, the embargo – therefore represents a hedging of Cuba’s geo-strategic bets. Looked at another way, it is also a tacit recognition by Havana that Caracas, despite its similar ideological outlook and oil wealth, might now be, in traders’ parlance, an “underperform”.
The list of reasons of why Cuba – or Wall Street – might think so is long and growing. Venezuela this year tightened capital controls as it no longer has sufficient reserves to sustain the capital flight of the last year. Oil sector output – according to independent estimates – has fallen considerably over the past decade due to a lack of investment. And the country also faces a large and rising contingent liability in the form of unpaid compensation owed to private business that have been nationalised by Mr Chávez.
There are currently 11 lawsuits and arbitration claims totalling $43.5bn lodged with the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement on Investment Disputes. The bulk of this relates to a $10bn claim by ExxonMobil and a $30bn claim by ConocoPhillips. Looked at another way, according to local consulting firm Ecoanalitica, Mr Chavez has announced nationalizations of some $23bn since 2006, and of that amount, the authorities have paid almost $9bn, leaving $14bn owing.
Lately, brokers only tend to recommend buying Venezuelan bonds on the basis of how long they need to hold them and not lose money. (About 4 years, assuming current 15 per cent yields and a recovery rate of 30 cents on the dollar.) With the largest oil reserves outside the Middle East, and a relatively comfortable foreign reserves position, Venezuela certainly can pay, should it wish to. The question for investors in a country where the government calls its private brokers a “tumor” is: how long will it? The Castro brothers may have given a clue.
(Image: Fidel Castro is seen on 18 June, 2008 in Havana during a meeting with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez and his brother Raúl Castro. By AFP/GETTY Images.)
Tags: Castro brothers, ConocoPhillips, Cuba, Cuba’s revolutionary gerontocracy, ExxonMobil, Greece, Hugo Chavez, Middle East, Venezuela, Wall Street, World Bank
Mary Anastasia O’Grady of the Wall Street Journal details Brazilian President Lula da Silva’s trend toward defending despots:
The repressive Iranian government is only the latest example. There is also Lula’s unconditional support for Cuba’s dictatorship and Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez. In February, Cuba allowed political dissident Orlando Zapata to starve to death the same week Lula arrived on the island slave plantation to hobnob with the Castro brothers. When asked by the press about Zapata, Lula dismissed his death as one of many by hunger-strikers in history that the world ignored. He obviously never heard of the Irish militant Bobby Sands.
(Image: Lula da Silva meets with Fidel and Raúl Castro in Havana on 24 February 2010. Juventud Rebelde.)
Tags: Bobby Sands, Castro brothers, Cuba, despots, Hugo Chavez, Iranian government, Lula da Silva, Mary Anastasia O'Grady, Orlando Zapata, Wall Street Journal
El Universal‘s interview with Simon Bolivar University graduate professor José Machillanda, who analyzes in his forthcoming book the transformation of a once professional military in Venezuela into a mere armed militia:
A professional military at the service of the State for the purposes of defense has turned into an armed militia under a political project. Hugo Chávez has “transmuted” the military to secure both his stay in office and the implementation of the 21st century socialism.
[...]
2002-2007
In the aftermath of the coup attempt on April 11, 2002, there was a void of power with top military officers being unable to put order in the Venezuelan society. The purge began, as well as the enforcement of new laws and the adoption of a new Cuban-style doctrine of “people’s war.” Corruption prevailed; Cuban militaries had a high profile. In this period, the president managed to centralize all administrative functions; reduced strategic studies and logistics, and fully implemented training and intelligence of the Cuban militia.
The original Spanish article is here.
ABC (one of Spain’s national newspapers) on the fall of Hugo Chávez’s popularity that is sparking reinforced presence of Cubans in the Venezuelan military to consolidate his totalitarian project.
Tags: Armed Forces, Cuba, cubans, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Military, Raul Castro, Venezuela
A leftist guerrilla movement responsible for many kidnappings and attacks inside Mexico is secretly receiving funding from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. The group, called the Ejercito Popular Revolucionario (EPR), is “a terrorist organization bent on destabilizing Mexico…Splinters of the group are also adding to the problem,” said a Mexican official who requested anonymity, reports the San Francisco Examiner.
The Examiner further added: “EPR has members that are former Cuban agents, Colombians, as well as others with an agenda to see a shift to the left in Mexico,” said a US military official.
(Image: An EPR guerrilla. Attacks by EPR to oil conglomerate PEMEX have caused serious economic damage to Mexico. EFE.)
Tags: Colombia, Ejercito Popular Revolucionario, EPR, Hugo Chavez, Mexico, Venezuela
Dr. Jerrold Post (Professor of Psychiatry, Political Psychology and International Affairs and Director of the Political Psychology Program at The George Washington University) wrote a seminal book, Leaders and Their Followers in a Dangerous World: The Psychology of Political Behavior, on the political psychology of world leaders.
Prior to his professorship, he founded and directed the CIA’s Center for the Analysis of Personality and Political Behavior (an interdisciplinary behavioral science unit which provided assessments of foreign leadership and decision making for U.S. senior officials) during his 21-year career at the Agency.
Chapter 10 of his book, “Fidel Castro: Aging Revolutionary of an Aging Revolution,” deals with Fidel Castro’s political personality, and also assesses his narcissism and destructive charisma.
He posits (the original assessment was made in the mid-90s—published in the periodical Problems of Post-Communism and updated for the book) on the psyche of Cuba’s longest ruling dictator:
Castro is a unique individual who does not fit into any diagnostic category but a review of his characteristic pattern of functioning suggests that narcissistic elements form a core aspect of his personality.
On the surface narcissist appear totally self-sufficient. But…, under their arrogant, self-confident façade, they are consumed with self-doubt, and feelings of inadequacy, which drive them in a never-ending quest for the attention and approval of an admiring audience.
Dr. Post concludes with the following observation that remains relevant in today’s Cuban regime:
While he will play to the international community, making cosmetic moves to show a loosening of control, he will not relinquish his iron grip on Cuba, as evidenced in the arrests and sentencing of critics in 2003. And, as he suggested in 1994, “he will not go gentle into that good night.”
Post scriptum
An informative assessment for the United States Air Force Counterproliferation Center was written by Dr. Post on Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez entitled, “El Fenomeno Chavez: Hugo Chavez of Venezuela, Modern Day Bolivar.”
(Image: Cornell University Press.)
Tags: destructive charisma, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Jerrold Post, narcissism, narcissist, Political Behavior, political personality, political psychology, psyche, Venezuela
Jerry Bremer, C.E.O. of Criminal Justice International Associates (a global risk mitigation firm headquartered in Miami, Florida) asks in his piece, “Cuba’s Agenda in Latin America Remains Clearly Nebulous,” via Mexidata.info, whether Cuba is a conventional military threat to anyone, which perhaps they are not, however. In the intelligence sphere, especially in Latin America, they apparently are so:
The history of Cuba’s Castro regime shows that they have trained thousands of communist guerrillas and terrorists, and sponsored violent acts of aggression and subversion in most democratic nations of the southwestern hemisphere. U.S. government studies within the intelligence community documented a total of 3,043 international terrorist incidents in the decade of 1968 to 1978. Within that study, “over 25 percent occurred in Latin America.”
[...]
Recent reports by the U.S. DIA [Defense Intelligence Agency] show that Cuba has been expanding intelligence operations in the Middle East and South Asia.
[...]
…Cuba’s current intelligence and spy apparatus has been described and reported to be an active “contingency of very well-trained, organized and financed agents.”
[...]
Cuba has also maintained a well-organized and ruthless intelligence presence within Mexico, as have the Russians. Much of their activity involved in U.S. interests that include recruiting disloyal U.S. military, government, and private sector specialists.
The rest of the story is here.
Tags: conventional military threat, Cuba, Cuban intelligence, Defense Intelligence Agency, DIA, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Intelligence, intelligence sphere, Latin America, Middle East, Military, Russia, South Asia, Venezuela, Western Hemisphere
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Stratfor issued a special report on Venezuela’s armed forces in early May, whereby the private global intelligence company opines:
Controlling Venezuela requires controlling oil and the armed forces, and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has managed to do both for more than a decade. Challenges to this control have emerged, however, such as enormous debt at the state-owned oil company and dissatisfaction in the armed forces at the role of Cubans in the South American country’s military. Still, Chavez’s hold appears secure so long as the oil revenues keep flowing.
And on the Cubanization of the Venezuelan armed forces:
The salary increase for the military also comes amid rising public criticism of the politicization and so-called Cubanization of the Venezuelan military. Former Venezuelan Brig. Gen. Antonio Rivero claimed the “the presence and meddling of Cuban soldiers” in the armed forces prompted his April retirement. Rivero said Cubans were operating at some of the highest levels in the Venezuelan military, delivering intelligence, communications, weapons and other training for the troops. He also denounced the extent to which Chavez has undermined military professionalism, and complained of the government’s move to expand its civilian militia. In the same address in which he announced the salary increase for the military, Chavez addressed Rivero’s complaints, saying he was saddened by the general’s attempt to draw attention to himself. Chavez also defended his decision to embrace the Cuban military presence by criticizing previous Venezuelan administrations for allowing the U.S. military to staff the offices of the country’s Army Command Headquarters and manage Venezuelan state secrets.1
While the opposition is eager to exploit the public relations sensation of a general condemning Chavez’s military policy, retiring generals and the Cuban links into the Venezuelan military are not exactly startling developments in Venezuela. The deep integration of Cuban forces in the Venezuelan military has been an open secret in recent years. By having enlisted soldiers and trainers percolate throughout the armed services at virtually all levels, the Chavez government has been able to tap Cuba’s security and intelligence expertise to keep tabs on dissidents and quash any potential threats to the government. For its part, Cuba benefits from being able to influence the policies of a regional, oil-producing heavyweight in South America. As Chavez’s political and economic vulnerabilities have increased, so have the opportunities for Cuba to entrench itself in Venezuela. 2
This symbiotic relationship saw its clearest manifestation with the July 2008 passage of the Organic Law of the National Armed Forces. The law redefined the Venezuelan Armed Forces from a politically nonaligned professional institution (as stated in the 1999 constitution) to a patriotic, popular and anti-imperialist body, as described in the legislation. Chavez, not wanting to be caught off guard again by his generals as he was during an April 2002 coup attempt, created the law to develop a military primarily tasked with protecting and defending the regime from internal threats. The Cuban government, wanting to ensure Venezuelan dependency on Cuban security, is believed to have had a role in one of the more controversial articles in the law. This provision allows for foreign nationals (i.e., Cubans) who have graduated from Venezuelan defense institutions to earn the rank of officer in the Venezuelan armed forces.3
Another clause in the law forces officers into retirement if they are not promoted after two years. Though such provisions are common in many militaries, Caracas has used it with unusual frequency as a tool to remove potential dissenters. Under this system, political allegiance can easily supersede military merit when it comes to awarding promotions or forcing resignations. Cuban advisers, who have been tasked with identifying localized threats from within the armed forces, are believed to have significant influence on these decisions.4
Chavez recently remarked in Havana that he felt like he was “one more Cuban.” But many Venezuelans do not like the Cubans’ methods or their growing presence in the country, and Cuban integration in the Venezuelan armed forces appears to have alienated several high-ranking members of the military. Chavez, however, has knowingly incurred this risk, and undermining powerful military leaders was likely one of his key goals. Problematic generals can be forced into retirement while the Cubans closely scrutinize the remaining military elite, who are given perks to keep them loyal to the government.5
While this comes at the cost of considerable expertise and professionalism, Chavez’s goal is to ensure that the upper ranks of the military lack the operational control to challenge the president. Mid-tier members of the military probably worry the Venezuelan president more, however. After all, Chavez was a lieutenant colonel with the charisma to rally a sizable portion of the military and lower classes around him in his 1992 coup attempt and victorious 1998 presidential campaign. As long as he is the one occupying the presidency, Chavez does not wish to see any lieutenant colonels following in his footsteps. Since Chavez lacks the same reach and oversight with the lower ranks of the military than he has with the generals, pay raises are a way to help mitigate potential threats emanating from below.6
Notes
1. Stratfor. “Special Report: Venezuela’s Control of the Armed Forces.” 3 May 2010.
2. Ibid.
3. Ibid.
4. Ibid.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
(Image: Venezuelan soldiers participate in parade with Russian arms. AFP/Getty Images.)
Tags: Cuban advisers, Havana, Hugo Chavez, Stratfor, Venezuela's Control of the Armed Forces, Venezuelan armed forces
The Financial Times has posted a report on the Cuban government’s medical diplomacy abroad:
Such “medical diplomacy” has been part of Cuba’s foreign policy almost since the revolution – and has grown in intensity over the past few years, fuelled above all by strong demand from Venezuela. In some of the most remote and neglected parts of the world, where western countries have “brain drained” away most of the medical expertise, Cuban personnel are winning friends while helping to fill a desperate need. In the past half century, some 130,000 have worked abroad, and today, 37,000 – half of them doctors, the rest nurses and other specialists – are spread across more than 70 countries. Now Elam is training many more from these nations too.
[...]
There is a more direct incentive for the Cuban doctors to work abroad, too. They earn up to 10 times their local salary, and have the prospect of better housing and jobs on their return. Most of their money is held in escrow until they come back, and they are expected to visit once a year. Their families usually have to stay in Cuba. Yet, in spite of the penalties, several thousand Cuban medics have defected over the years, complaining about repressive supervision, being treated with suspicion while on a posting, or being put under pressure to speak out as political advocates. For most, however, fleeing is not an option.
[...]
Meanwhile, medical services are one of Cuba’s most important sources of foreign currency. Most nations provide a modest return: the host government pays for travel, accommodation and a stipend of up to $200 a month per doctor. Richer countries – from Angola after it found oil in the 1960s, to South Africa under the ANC – contribute more. Cuba has even begun offering medical support for commercial fees in countries such as Qatar. And no partner is more important than Venezuela. The secondments enabled President Hugo Chávez to point to a rapid rise in the numbers of medical specialists when seeking to justify his social revolution. The financial terms are confidential, but the quid pro quo includes heavily subsidised oil supplies to Cuba.
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Tags: ANC, Angola, Cuban doctors, Cuban medics, Cuban personnel, Elam, Financial Times, foreign currency, Hugo Chavez, medical diplomacy, Qatar, South Africa, Venezuela
Andres Oppenheimer’s piece on Cubans running Venezuela:
Cuba is increasingly worried about Chávez’s political future in light of Venezuela’s growing food shortages, electricity blackouts, massive corruption and Latin America’s highest inflation rates. Fearing that it could lose the 100,000 barrels of subsidized oil a day that Venezuela sends to the island, Cuba is on a rescue mission to help manage Venezuela’s inefficient and corruption-ridden government offices.
[...]
Venezuela’s growing alliance with Cuba — “Venecuba,” or “Cubazuela,” depending on which country you believe has the upper hand — is a marriage of convenience that may backfire for Chávez.
[...]
Chávez, who has made a religion of “national sovereignty,” may be playing with fire by allowing Cuba to run his country.
While The Economist addresses the wrecking of Venezuela:
But to many others, including this newspaper, he has come to embody a new, post-cold-war model of authoritarian rule which combines a democratic mandate, populist socialism and anti-Americanism, as well as resource nationalism and carefully calibrated repression.
[...]
In Mr Chávez’s case, that claim has been backed up above all by oil. On the one hand, he has deployed oil revenues abroad to gain allies, and to sustain the Castro brothers in power in Cuba.
[...]
He has been elected three times, and won four referendums. He has hollowed out Venezuela’s democracy, subjugating the courts, bullying the media and intimidating opponents. But he has been unable, or unwilling, to disregard or repress opposition to the same degree as Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or even Russia’s Vladimir Putin, let alone the Castro brothers in Cuba.
(Photo: Army General Raúl Castro greets Venezuela President Hugo Chávez upon his arrival in Havana, 20 FEB 2009. AP.)
Tags: Andres Oppenheimer, Caracas, Cuba, Cubazuela, Havana, Hugo Chavez, The Economist, Venecuba, Venezuela
President Hugo Chávez announced that for the celebration of the bicentennial of Venezuela’s independence on April 19, he expects the visit of Cuban Army General Raúl Castro.
Tags: Hugo Chavez, Raul Castro, Venezuela
Michael Reid, The Economist‘s Latin America editor and author of the book Forgotten Continent: The Battle for Latin America’s Soul, has a piece in El Pais about Cuba and Venezuela’s mutual dependence:
That said, the Castro brothers have failed to implement a strategy to ensure the survival of their regime beyond their lives. Raul had a plan: convoluted Vietnamese-style economic reforms that combines capitalism and communist political control, and the appointment of younger leadership at a party congress to be held this year. But Fidel’s recovery of a botched abdominal surgery that almost killed him in late 2006, changed these plans. The indefinite postponement of the party conference and the freezing of reforms demonstrates Fidel’s veto power continues.
By blocking reform, Fidel has inextricably tied his legacy to the survival of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela. Without free Venezuelan oil, unrest in a Cuba without reform would reach uncontrollable levels. But Chavez also depends on Fidel: Cuban doctors who staged the primary care program Barrio Adentro have returned to the island, but there are many security officials and Cuban espionage protecting Chavez from political threats.
Tags: El Pais, Hugo Chavez, Latin America, Michael Reid, The Economist
Via the Christian Science Monitor:
To date, the Obama administration has dismissed Venezuela’s President Hugo Chávez as a pesky, leftist loudmouth, whose verbal eruptions against the United States pose no threat. But a new era of “Cubanization” in Venezuela should warn of a crackdown against Mr. Chávez’s domestic opponents and a stepped-up drive for socialist revolution across Latin America.
Chávez has been importing “advisers” from Cuba. There are now some 30,000 of them, many of them intelligence, security, and political affairs officers, as well as medical personnel.
[...]
Cuba depends on Venezuela’s cheap oil (the US is also a major buyer) and would be disadvantaged if the Chávez regime fell. Havana may be alarmed by the fissures in Chávez’s support and probably welcomed the opportunity to position [Ramiro] Valdes in Caracas to bolster Chávez.
Cuba’s leaders may also have some concerns about their own country’s political stability. Cuban dissidents say word has been passed up the military command that the ailing Fidel Castro may not outlast this year. His succession is by no means certain. Fidel’s brother Raúl, currently managing the country while his brother is incapacitated, is credited with being a better administrator than Fidel, but lacks Fidel’s charisma.
The Obama administration, beset by major problems at home and challenges abroad, may have thought it could delay confronting lesser problems in Latin America. This may prove to have been an unwise calculation.
The rest of the piece is here.
Tags: Cuban advisors, Hugo Chavez, Venezuela
Via New York Times:
The purge has revealed a power struggle at the highest levels of government, leading to the fall of some of Mr. Chávez’s military comrades and reports of secret dossiers on businessmen compiled here by intelligence agents from Cuba, Venezuela’s top ally.
At a time when Mr. Chávez struggles with public ire over electricity shortages and an economy in recession, the arrests show his ability to nimbly consolidate power while crisis swirls around him. To do so, Mr. Chávez is using tactics like secret-police raids and expropriations of some of his most powerful supporters’ businesses, relying on a dwindling number of military loyalists to carry out his orders.
Tags: Cuban intelligence, Cuban intelligence agents, CuIS, Hugo Chavez
Hugo Chávez, as he drafts in ever more Cuban aides to shore up his regime, is fulfilling a longstanding dream of Fidel Castro’s.
IN A small fishing village on the Caribbean coast of Venezuela stands a plinth. Unveiled by government officials in 2006, it pays homage to the Cuban guerrillas sent by Fidel Castro in the 1960s to help subvert Venezuela’s then recently restored democracy. Almost entirely bereft of popular support, the guerrilla campaign flopped. But four decades later, and after a decade of rule by Hugo Chávez, Cuba’s communist regime seems finally to have achieved its goal of invading oil-rich Venezuela—this time without firing a shot.
[...]
Tags: Cuba’s communist regime, Hugo Chavez, Venecuba, Venecubans
Image: EFE
The vice-president and defense minister of Venezuela, Ramón Carrizalez, one of President Hugo Chávez’s oldest allies, announced his resignation yesterday citing personal reseasons.
Venezuelan analysts affirm that the cause could be over his disagreement with the imposition of Cuban military officers (also assimilating within Venezuela’s military with same rank) in the military high command making decisions at the Strategic Operational Command level.
Click here for full story.
Tags: Cuban military officers, high command, Hugo Chavez, Ramón Carrizalez, Strategic Operational Command, Venezuela, Venezuela defense minister, Venezuela vice-president
Image: Venezuela Presidential Press
A delegation of high-ranking Cuban government officials met Sunday with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavéz at the hall of the Council of Ministers in Miraflores Palace to discuss next month’s ALBA summit in Cuba, informs the Venezuelan Ministry of Communication and Information.
The Cuban delegation was led by Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz (Vice-President, Council of Ministers) along with Jorge Luis Sierra Cruz (Vice-President, Council of Ministers and Tourist Ministry); Salvador Pardo Guerra (Minister, Metals Industry); Yadira García (Minister, Basic Industry); Rodrigo Malmierca (Minister, International Commerce and Foreign Investment); Rogelio Sierra Díaz (Vice-Minister, Foreign Relations); Alberto Rodríguez (Vice-Minister, Information and Communications) and Rogelio Polanco Fuentes (Cuban Ambassador to Venezuela).
Tags: ALBA, Alberto Rodríguez, Cuban government officials, Hugo Chavez, Jorge Luis Sierra Cruz, Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz, Rodrigo Malmierca, Rogelio Polanco Fuentes, Rogelio Sierra Díaz, Salvador Pardo Guerra, Venezuela, venezuelan government, Yadira García
Via Universal (Venezuela):
The Cuban government appointed journalist Rogelio Polanco as the new ambassador to Venezuela, announced in an official statement. The position was occupied during 15 years by sociologist Germán Sánchez. Polanco, the editor of newspaper Juventud Rebelde, one of the two state-run nationwide newspapers, “has accomplished important missions linked to Venezuela’s Bolivarian Revolution” over the past five years, according to the statement published in the Cuban official newspaper Granma. The political career of the new ambassador began with the Union of Young Communists (UJC), where he was a member of the National Bureau (1994-1998) and of its National Committee (1994-97). In 1997, Polanco organized the World Festival of Youth and Students held in Havana, AFP reported.
While in Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela, the government has a growing monopoly on the media. According to the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Open Source Center (OSC), which said in a new assessment (pdf): The Venezuelan government of President Hugo Chavez “is moving forcefully to silence critics by introducing a Media Crimes bill that would give it sweeping authority to jail journalists, media executives, and bloggers who report on anything that the government considers to be harmful to state interests.”
Tags: Cuban ambassador to Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, media, Open Source Center, Rogelio Polanco, Venezuela
The Undermining Democracy: 21st Century Authoritarians website is hosted by Freedom House, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Radio Free Asia. All three organizations convened experts for a series of workshops over the course of 2008 and 2009 to analyze the ways in which five influential countries—China, Iran, Pakistan, Russia, and Venezuela—are impeding democratic development both within and beyond their borders.
Associate Professor of Political Scientist Javier Corrales who teaches at Amherst wrote a report titled “Petro-Politics and the Promotion of Disorder,” for one of the workshops where he analyzes how Venezuela’s windfall of profits from oil production/sales has been the “Chávez government’s principal tool for exerting influence beyond Venezuela’s borders,” which has been instrumental in the dismantling of democracy within the Venezuelan state and propping anti-democratic forces in bordering states.
Corrales focuses on the Cuba-Venezuela economic relationship in the following paragraphs:
Among Venezuela’s authoritarian allies, Cuba is probably the most important for the regime’s self-image, and the relationship is distinguished by a unique exchange of financial support for ideological endorsement. From Cuba’s perspective, Venezuela has replaced the Soviet Union as its main sponsor, supplying handsome oil subsidies that allow the island state to reexport as much as 40 percent of the fuel it receives. This allowance is provided with almost no political or other conditions, unlike any aid or investment Cuba might obtain from international organizations or democratic countries. In return, Cuba serves as the issuer of a certificate of good “radical” credentials, permitting Chávez to flaunt his anti-imperialism and score points among the most extreme elements of the left in Latin America. Cuba also provides tangible assistance in the form of almost 40,000 technical experts, including doctors, nurses, teachers, coaches, and military and intelligence personnel.
Since Raúl Castro became president of Cuba, there has been speculation that the Cuban government is growing wary of the island’s dependence on its new benefactor. There are rumors, for instance, that Castro does not like Chávez personally, and that he is pursuing ways to diversify the country’s economic ties. Nevertheless, there are reasons to believe that the special relationship between Cuba and Venezuela will endure. Each country is providing the other with assets that are cheap for the donor and valuable to the recipient. Venezuela’s subsidy to Cuba consists of a small fraction of its oil production, while Cuba has a surplus of trained technical experts. The ideological endorsement, of course, costs Cuba nothing.
[H/T: Petroleumworld]
Tags: Cuba, freedom house, Hugo Chavez, Petropolitics, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe, Radio Liberty, Raul Castro, Undermining Democracy: 21st Century Authoritarians, Venezuela
Will Havana exercise its influence over Caracas' ties to Hezbollah at the behest of Tel Aviv?
La Nueva Cuba reports on Army General Raul Castro’s African tour (Algeria, Angola and Namibia), which included thereafter a July 22 visit to Brazil.
His visit to the South American country has sparked interest among political observers/analysts and Western intelligence agencies.
Castro visited the Northeastern city of Salvador de Bahía, according to newswires, in a layover return from Angola, which was confirmed by the Cuban Embassy in Brasilia, AFP affirms.
The Cuban successor’s visit to African countries was Havana’s desperate attempt to negotiate an urgent need for loans to alleviate pressure from foreign transnationals claiming access to frozen accounts in Cuba since December 2008.
While other sources point to the possibility of Army General Castro’s Brazilian stopover as a secret meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who coincidentally arrived in Brazil the same day.
Israel wants clarifications from Havana in relation to the close relationship between Hugo Chavez and Iran, and the presence/proliferation of Hezbollah terrorist cells in Venezuela.
Tel Aviv wants Havana to exercise its influence over Caracas with the intention of impeding terrorist activities in Latin America and safe havens in Venezuela.
Israel considers Cuba capable of controlling Chavez’s conduct in regards to the subject of fundamentalist terrorism in Latin America.
Tags: Avigdor Lieberman, Caracas, Hezbollah, Hugo Chavez, Israel, Latin America, Tel Aviv, terrorism, terrorist cells, Venezuela
Coup plotters? Felipe Perez Roque and Carlos Lage greet Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at Jose Marti International Airport in Havana on June 16, 2008. (Image: AFP)
Jorge Casta
Tags: Carlos Lage, conspiracy, coup plot, cubans, Felipe Perez Roque, Hugo Chavez, jorge casta, Raul Castro
Maj. General Anatoly Zhikharev, Chief of Staff of the Russian Air Force has told Interfax-AVN military news agency that Russia could use air bases for its strategic bombers in Cuba and Venezuela.
He said: “There are four or five airfields in Cuba with 4,000-meter-long runways, which absolutely suit us.”
San Antonio de Los Ba
Tags: Hugo Chavez, military airfield, Russia, russian air force, russian bombers, russian strategic bombers, Russian strategic bombers San Antonio de Los Ba, tu 160 blackjack, Venezuela
Venezuela has purchased 100K Kalashnikov AK-103 assault rifles.
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon was interviewed by Reuters and warned of a regional arms race in Latin America precipitated by Russia’s new found presence in the region.
The recent Russian naval visits to Cuba and Venezuela may be linked to August’s Georgia war, said the U.S. diplomat. Shannon believes Russia may be considering a security presence in the region.
He is quoted in the interview as saying, “What would be telling however, is not this ship visit, it’s the next one. If the purpose of this ship visit was just to make a point about Russia’s periphery, if its purpose was just to make a point about Georgia, then we probably won’t see them again. But if the Russians really are attempting to build a more longstanding relationship in the region, then they will look for ways to maintain some presence in their security relationship with partners. What’s interesting for us about how Russia is engaging in the region is this is not the Soviet Union, they do not bring an ideological purpose to their engagement.”
Arms Sales
Shannon went further by adding, Russia’s trade interests include arms sales and, while Venezuela has the right to buy weapons. He was concerned an arms race might develop in the region or that decommissioned arms might be sold off to illegal groups.
“They’re (arms) sold in a context, so when Venezuela buys $4 billion worth of weapons with very high-end aircraft, it has an impact in the region and one consequence of this is the Brazilian decision to modernize its armed forces,” said Shannon.
Tags: Hugo Chavez, Western Hemisphere
Via Popular Mechanics:
Despite grandiose talk, this is not a particularly threatening flotilla: The Russian nuclear-powered missile cruiser Peter the Great is joined by an antisubmarine destroyer, a fuel tanker and a tugboat that is on hand in case of breakdowns. “Militarily, the trip is virtually meaningless,” says Jan van Tol, a recently retired U.S. Navy captain and senior fellow at the D.C.-based Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. “A lot of it has to do with the credibility of the navy involved,” Tol says. “I don’t think [Nicaragua's] Daniel Ortega, [Cuba's] Raul Castro or [Venezuela's] Hugo Chavez are asking the Russians, ‘How long would it take for you to be here if we needed help?’ ”
The Russians are not sending their third-string ships on this diplomatic mission; those selected to visit the hemisphere are some of the best surface ships they have left after a decade of neglect. “Peter the Great was one of the better ships the Soviets had. It was quite a powerful ship for its time,” says van Tol. “They probably were taken in for significant refitting and rehabilitation to make the trip.”
As humble as the fleet might seem from a military point of view, the real mission is powerful for its diplomatic symbolism
Tags: center for strategic and budgetary assessments, Daniel Ortega, destroyer, diplomatic mission, flotilla, fuel tanker, Hugo Chavez, missile cruiser, peter the great, Raul Castro, russian warships, soviets, surface ships, tugboat
Via CSM:
Venezuela’s Hugo Ch
Tags: Cuba, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Latin America, Venezuela, venezuelan oil
The New York Times reports Russia has provided Fidel Castro’s prot
Tags: Caribbean, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Latin America, military balance, military loan, military technologies, multipolar world, nuclear deterrence, President Hugo Chavez, Russia, technical cooperation, transport helicopters, Venezuela, venezuelan navy
By Jerry Brewer via Mexidata.info
Totalitarian dictatorships still exist and, as a matter of fact, they are very much alive in Latin America. Democracies throughout the Americas must immediately address their governments’ counterintelligence missions, and their strategic long and short range vision to monitor aggression and other forms of insurgency within their homelands.
Cuba’s intelligence and spy apparatus has been described as a “contingency of very well-trained, organized and financed agents.” Too, President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has adopted the previous Soviet-styled Cuban intelligence service (DGI) as his model for Venezuela’s security service, known as the DISIP, utilizing Cuban intelligence counterparts and advisors.
What is the history of Cuba’s communist trained spies?
Cuba has trained thousands of communist guerrillas and terrorists, and has sponsored violent acts of aggression and subversion in most democratic nations of the southwestern hemisphere. U.S. government studies within the intelligence community documented a total of 3,043 international terrorist incidents in the decade of 1968 to 1978. Within that study, “over 25 percent occurred in Latin America.”
Recent reports are that Cuba has been expanding intelligence operations in the Middle East and South Asia. This reported by the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency.
Cuba has consistently maintained a well-organized and “ruthless” intelligence presence within Mexico, as have the Russians. Much of their activity involved in U.S. interests that include recruiting disloyal U.S. military, government, and “private sector specialists. Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Colombia, communist guerrillas, Cuba, Defense Intelligence Agency, Ecuador, guerrillas and terrorists, Hugo Chavez, intelligence operations, intelligence service, international terrorist incidents, Latin America, mexican drug cartels, Mexico, Middle East, middle eastern terrorists, narcoterrorism, Peru, President Hugo Chavez, President Rafael Correa, South Asia, subversion, totalitarian dictatorships, US, Venezuela
Mary Anastasia O’Grady, The Americas columnist for the Wall Street Journal writes about Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez emulating Fidel Castro’s authoritarian trait:
It is no secret that Hugo Ch
Tags: bolivarian revolution, economic measures, economic power, food production, food shortages, Hugo Chavez, nationalization, planned economy, political prisoners, private sector investment, Venezuela, venezuela food
Spanish daily Diario Exterior reports:
The June 17 encounter between Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, Castro advised Chavez to take care of himself from the Ecuadorean government, which is seeking an alliance with the United States.
El Universal, a Venezuelan daily, assures that Fidel Castro handed Chavez a report from Cuban Intelligence (G2) alerting to suspicious political movements by his colleague Rafael Correa, President of Ecuador, of a possible plot by his ministers to overthrow him.
The report reveals the Ecuadorean leader is formulating his foreign policy and looking for a transfer of the US military base to Colombia.
The most severe warning Castro gave to Chavez is related to a plan by Chavez’s closest functionaries to overthrow him and in addition recommended to change his ministers for incompetence and theft. If Chavez wants to remain in power, according to the communique, Castro’s warning will obligate the Venezuelan president to reinforce his security plan.
Castro also suggested to Venezuelan president to change his ministers because his greatest enemies are among them.
[H/T: La Nueva Cuba]
[Photo: AP]
Tags: Colombia, Cuba, Cuban Government, Cuban intelligence, Cuban intelligence operatives, Cuban-Venezuelan intelligence, Directorate of Intelligence (DI), Ecuador, Fidel Castro, Government, Hugo Chavez, Intelligence, International Relations, President Hugo Chavez, Rafael Correa, Security, US, Venezuela, Western Hemisphere
Global Power Barometer‘s prognosis for Latin America in the next 3 to 36 months:
Latin America and the Rise of the Anti-American Left
In 1823, US President James Monroe issued the Monroe Doctrine, naming all of the Western Hemisphere, and particularly Latin America under the United States’ sphere of influence. Nearly 200 years later, the Monroe Doctrine looks like it could crumble
In 2005-2006, Latin American politics have been veering to the left with the electoral victories of Evo Morales in Bolivia, Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, and Rafael Correa in Ecuador (and a near victory by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in Mexico). These new leftist leaders add to current leftist regimes in Argentina, Brazil and Cuba. Perhaps the most outspoken of the leftist leaders is US opponent Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, who was just reelected by a 23% margin. These nations will pose a growing challenge to US interests in Latin America, as they seek to align themselves elsewhere. Already, Chavez has been making loud and brash statements on the world stage, pledging allegiance to Iran, denouncing President Bush and the United States at the United Nations, and signing trade pacts with China. Mercosur, the regional trade agreement instituted to promote free trade throughout South America (similar to NAFTA), is gaining supporters and seeks to give Latin America the same economic clout that the US and EU have. Furthermore, many Latin American nations are members of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which seeks to provide viable alternatives to American and European hegemony. As Chinese investments in Venezuelan oil, in the reconstruction of the Panama Canal, and in mines grows in the region, watch for more independent action and less concord with the United States.
Tags: Argentina, Brazil, Daniel Ortega, hegemony, Hugo Chavez, International Relations, Latin America, Monroe Doctrine, region, Trade, United States, Venezuela, Western Hemisphere
Via NYT:
Cuban television showed the first images of Fidel Castro, left, in more than five months, a silent video of him chatting in a garden with President Hugo Ch
Tags: Fidel Castro, Government, Hugo Chavez, International Relations
The former prime minister of the erstwhile German Democratic Republic (GDR), Hans Modrow, has denied reports that he was in Cuba to advise its government on transition to a more democratic regime, Spain’s EFE news agency reported Sunday.Heinz Dieterich, advisor to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and considered one of the ideologues of the so-called “socialism of the 21st century,” had said that Modrow had travelled secretly to Cuba at the invitation of Fidel Castro and was meeting with a number of high officials on the island about the process that led to the end of communism in the GDR.
“I don’t know what Dieterich’s intentions were in making that statement, but it’s not true,” Modrow told the Berlin daily Junge Welt.
Modrow, 80, said that he has been in Havana since mid-February, but he went in order to present his book “In Historischer Mission” (On a Historic Mission).
The presence of the ex-prime minister of the GDR in the Cuban capital came to the notice of German public in mid-February through the popular daily Bild, which reported that he went to the island at the invitation of Fidel Castro.
At the beginning of this week, before Castro announced his retirement, another German daily, Berliner Kurier, kept the subject alive, without relating it directly with a plan to offer advice.
It said that Modrow had met Cuba’s National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon, among other leading politicians, and that everyone on the island asked about the transition and reforms.
Hans Modrow was prime minister of the GDR from December 1989 to March 1990.
He took office soon after the Berlin Wall fell Nov 9, 1989. In April 1990, he was succeeded by Lothar de Maiziere, elected head of the transition government that prepared the dissolution of the GDR and the reunification of the Federal Republic of Germany.
In 1999, he was elected a member to the European Parliament for the Party of Democratic Socialism, the post-communist group of which he became honorary president.
Source: Indo-Asian News Service
Tags: Fidel Castro, GDR, German Democratic Republic, Hugo Chavez, Ricardo Alarcon
The Annual Threat Assessment of the U.S. Director of National Intelligence (Mike McConnell) was presented to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence today.
The DNI assessment of Cuba is as follows:
Raul Castro has served as Cuba
Tags: Cuban Communist Party, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Raul Castro, Venezuela
Brian Latell’s latest assessment of the Cuban transition is published in today’s Wall Street Journal:
Without a hint of irony, Fidel Castro asserted twice last month in columns in Cuba’s Granma newspaper, that he is not one “to cling to power.” The truth is that few world leaders in modern times have ruled as long as he has. On New Year’s Day he began the 50th year of his dictatorship.
But now, at the age of 81, handicapped and incapable of providing coherent leadership, the end of his historic reign is imminent. He has not been seen in public for more than 17 months after ceding authority “provisionally” to his brother Ra
Tags: Carlos Lage, Cuban Communist Party, Cuban Government, Economu, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Oil, Raul Castro, Venezuela
Diplomatic corner
20 August 2010 at 1809 in Commentary, Diplomacy, Government, International Relations by Armando F. Mastrapa 3d
(Image: Diplomacy board game from Avalon Hill.)
Tags: Cuban advisors, Cuban agent, Cuban diplomats, Cuban doctors, Cuban health technicians, Cuban nurses, El Salvador, Hugo Chavez, Kim Jong-il, Mariel, North Korea