How Cuba Taught Venezuela To Crush Any Dissent In The Military

STILL STANDING: Opposition leaders say fear and paranoia within the military have kept troops and commanders from joining their calls to turn on Maduro. REUTERS/Handout/Venezuelan presidency

Reuters: Imported repression: How Cuba taught Venezuela to quash military dissent

Imposing surveillance, fear and repression, Cuba helped Venezuela revamp its armed forces and military intelligence service. Reuters reveals how two agreements, undisclosed since 2008, let Havana remake Venezuela's security apparatus.

In December 2007, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez suffered his first defeat at the polls. Although still wildly popular among the working class that had propelled him to power nearly a decade earlier, voters rejected a referendum that would have enabled him to run for re-election repeatedly.

Stung, Chávez turned to a close confidant, according to three former advisors: Fidel Castro. The aging Cuban leader had mentored Chávez years before the Venezuelan became president, when he was still best known for leading a failed coup.

Now, deepening economic ties were making Cuba ever more reliant on oil-rich Venezuela, and Castro was eager to help Chávez stay in power, these advisors say. Castro’s advice: Ensure absolute control of the military.

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WNU Editor: Cuba may have taught Chavez and his successor Maduro on how to stay in power, but they have also helped in the destruction of the very economy that permitted Venezuela to provide aid and assistance to Cuba. Rationing has been re-introduced in Cuba .... Cuba starts widespread rationing of food and other basics (CBC), and my friends who always go to Cuba for a cheap vacation are also noticing that unlike past years the people who are living there are now suffering.

Is Cuba's Supply Of Oil From Venezuela Under Risk?

Venezuela and Cuba strengthened ties after Chavez rose to power in 1999

DW: Venezuela crisis: Is Cuba's oil supply under threat?

For years, Cuba has received large quantities oil from Venezuela. But with the government in Caracas in turmoil and President Nicolas Maduro under increasing pressure, is the country at risk of losing its energy supply?

Economic ties between Cuba and Venezuela have been close ever since Hugo Chavez became Venezuelan president 1999. Twenty years later, Venezuela still is Cuba's second most important trading partner after China.

Today, Venezuela is marred by political turmoil and President Nicolas Maduro's days could be numbered. What would this mean for Cuba?

"Most of Cuba's energy consumption is covered by Venezuelan oil, and getting oil from elsewhere would throw Cuba into crisis," said Bert Hoffmann, a senior research fellow at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies. Such a scenario, he added, would lead to "dire austerity measures, which would mean immense hardship for the Cuban population."

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WNU Editor:  Venezuela is on the brink of not even having enough oil for itself, let alone export. For Cuba, they better look for other suppliers. My prediction. They are going to beg Russia for oil shipments, and at the same terms that Venezuela was giving them. Will Moscow give Cuba oil .... I hope not.