[kearnyirish2]

Cuba has just traded down in sugar daddies (from the Soviet Union to Venezuela); better that than admit communism doesn’t work. Enough communists in the US apparently still believe it is the future; they point to a supposedly great healthcare system in a country lacking basic necessities (Cuba), while ignoring the collapse of an oil-producing country like Venezuela where people are scrounging for toilet paper...

[Truth29]

This would indicate that the Cuban paramilitaries and security forces in Venezuela will be all in to keep Maduro in power and the Venezuelan protests will have to be much more like those in the Ukraine to have any real effect.

[Prospero]

The Cubans reportedly have 30,000 "advisers" on the ground and slotted into every level of the "Colectivos," the N. Guard, the national police... everywhere. Planeloads are arriving in San Cristobol, where demonstrations began Feb. 2, and where the water, electricity and Internet have been shut off.

Working for the regime, also, are the connected drug cartels, perhaps as much or more a source of revenue to Havana as Venezuela's world-class oil reserves and infrastructure.

Huge rallies, Feb. 22, may decide whether this can be called civil war, and whether Venezuela has suffers the long-term nightmare of Cuba or eventually wears the Cubans and Chavismo out.