VENECUBA A SINGLE NATION

VENECUBA A SINGLE NATION
Feb 11th 2010

Hugo Chavez, 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 Chavez, Cuba''s communist
regime seems finally to have achieved its goal of invading oil-rich
Venezuela--this time without firing a shot.
Earlier this month Ramiro Valdes, a veteran revolutionary who ranks
number three in Cuba''s ruling hierarchy and was twice its interior
minister, arrived in Caracas, apparently for a long stay. Officially,
Mr Valdes has come to head a commission set up by Mr Chavez to resolve
Venezuela''s acute electricity shortage. But he lacks expertise in this
field, and Cuba is famous for 12-hour blackouts. Some members of
Venezuela''s opposition reckon that Mr Valdes, whose responsibilities at
home include policing Cubans'' access to the internet, has come to help
Mr Chavez step up repression ahead of a legislative election in
September. Others believe he was sent to assess the gravity of the
situation facing the Castro brothers'' most important ally (Cuba depends
on Mr Chavez for subsidised oil). He has been seen in meetings with
Venezuelan military commanders.
Although by far the most senior, Mr Valdes is only one among many
Cubans who have been deployed by Mr Chavez under bilateral agreements
that took shape in 2003. As well as thousands of doctors staffing a
community-health programme, they include people who are helping to run
Venezuela''s ports, telecommunications, police training, the issuing of
identity documents and the business registry.
In 2005 Venezuela''s government gave Cuba a contract to modernise its
identity-card system. Since then, Cuban officials have been spotted in
agencies such as immigration and passport control. A group of Cubans
who recently fled Venezuela told a newspaper in Miami that they had
bribed a Cuban official working in passport control at Caracas airport.
In some ministries, such as health and agriculture, Cuban advisers
appear to wield more power than Venezuelan officials. The health
ministry is often unable to provide statistics--on primary health-care
or epidemiology for instance--because the information is sent back to
Havana instead. Mr Chavez seemed to acknowledge this last year when, by
his own account, he learned that thousands of primary health-care posts
had been shut down only when Mr Castro told him so.
Coffee-growers complain that in meetings with the government it is
Barbara Castillo, a former Cuban trade minister, who calls the shots.
Ms Castillo, who was formally seconded to Venezuela four years ago,
refuses requests for interviews.
Trade unions, particularly in the oil and construction industries, have
complained of ill-treatment by the Cubans. No unions are allowed on
Cuban-run building sites. In September last year Froilan Barrios of the
Confederation of Venezuelan Workers, which opposes the government, said
that "oil and petrochemicals are completely penetrated by Cuban G2,"
the Castros'' fearsomely efficient intelligence service. Oil workers
planning a strike said they had been threatened by Cuban officials.
The new national police force and the army have both adopted policies
inspired by Cuba. The chief adviser to the national police-training
academy is a Cuban, and Venezuela''s defence doctrine is based on Cuba''s
"war of all the people". Foreign officials who watch Venezuela closely
say that Cuban agents occupy key posts in Venezuela''s military
intelligence agency, but these claims are impossible to verify.
Mr Chavez portrays Cuban help as socialist solidarity in the struggle
against "the empire", as he calls the United States. When he was
visiting Cuba in 2005 Fidel Castro said publicly to him that their two
countries were "a single nation". "With one flag," added Mr Chavez, to
which Mr Castro replied, "We are Venecubans." These views are not
shared by Venezuelans. In a recent poll 85% of respondents said they
did not want their country to become like Cuba. Perhaps Mr Valdes will
include that in his assessment.