The Post describes Venezuela's Chavez as "mercurial" - a weak personality that cracks under stress - but one who is saved by the steady hand of his mentor, Fidel Castro. Once, when the military was conspiring (and when they are not?), Chavez was weeping while Castro personally "worked the phones" to create a consensus for his protege.
Chavez relies heavily on Cuban advisors to implement programs that are one of the keys to his political success. We assess there could be as many as 40,000 Cubans currently in Venezuela, managing, guiding, and implementing Chavez' social missions (e.g., Barrio Adentro medical program, Mision Robinson literacy program, Mercal state-owned grocery chain, etc.) Rumors swirl about Cubans taking central roles in sensitive government functions, including in Chavez' personal security, the military, the National Electoral Council, the national identification Office, even land titling offices. The Cubans are getting paid hard currency for it.Interestingly, the word "Communist" is not mentioned by the "Post", although what he is describing is classic "socialist solidarity". In fact, the concept of communism or even ideology is absent from the State Department verbiage. Maybe they feel that their bosses are socialists. Instead, they focus on personalities, on election chances. Their main fields of interests are arms and drugs smuggling. Maybe the real hard material is marked "Top Secret" that was not leaked.
7 comments:
I'm not sure that even Communists believe in Communism any more - this is a business transaction, not "socialist solidarity". In Cuba, Socialist Solidarity always involved someone (the Soviets) writing big checks anyway. The Cubans are experts in managing a semi-functional socialist economy (semi-functional is about as good as it gets under socialism) so who better to hire?
Maybe the fact that Chavez and Castro are socialists was too obvious to be worth mentioning. This is not exactly news.
K
Seems like Chavez needs white guys to manage his affairs, after all.
Cuban commies screwed up Ethiopia and Angola too. I fear the Venezuelans are in for a long night. This should be an object lesson never to let low-IQ bums ever to be in a position to vote for themselves the perks of the state.
It is nteresting how a small shitty country in the Caribbean is developing worldwide political activity.
The ruling elite in Cuba, actually a group of Spanish white men, are not without courage or intellect.
One of the helpful little things they have realized is that if they ever give up, they will be hanging from lamp-posts within 24H.
This might have some bearing on understanding their behavior.
Anon.
Mark Twain said nothing focuses the mind like the prospect of imminent hanging. But I think the jobs of the Castro bros. are secure - after 50 years they have killed or expelled just about anyone with the brains and guts to fight them - what they have left are a bunch of yes men and those from the bottom of the IQ barrel who think that the revolution has actually benefitted them. Perhaps it has in relative terms (pre-Revolutionary Cuba was a very stratified society) but by now a capitalist Cuba would have become the Las Vegas of the Caribbean and all classes (other than a handful of nomenklatura) would have been living far better than they are now.
K
I go there from time to time on business.
The young people are so sick and tired of the revolution, and it's all held together by fear and, notwithstanding Saint Obama, manufactured animus towards the US.
They don't know what to think of Al Qaeda, but for now are content to strategize against the West on an opportunistic basis (eg the Cuba-Venezuela-Iran axis).
Some of the more insightful apparachiks are vaguely aware that ascendant authoritarian deism is not exactly prominent in the Communist Manifesto.
Anon.
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