No Venezuelan Spring: 4500 Cuban Military on Venezuelan Soil: $10B Annual US Subsidy at Stake

Maggie's Notebook ^ | 1-8-13 | Maggie@MaggiesNotebook

[maggiesnotebook]

The Miami Herald is reporting Hugo Chávez early demise was recognized long before the rest of the world was privvy to the details of a late diagnosed and lethal cancer. With the help of Cuban brothers Fidel and Raúl, and Chávez' hand-picked successor Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan presidential election was moved from December 2012 to October 2012, two months that the report says were crucial. In October Chávez could still stand before his supporters to applaud his re-election, but there was no certainty that he could do so in December. He returned to Cuba for a fourth round of cancer treatments in early December, and hasn't been seen in public since. Chavez has, according to reports below, actively Cubanized Venezuela's military, police and intelligence.

To the Cuban brothers, it was essential to sedate all the Venezuelans, especially the Chavistas, for the purpose of controlling and manipulating the transfer of authority in Caracas, so that Cuba might not lose the enormous Venezuelan subsidy, estimated at $10 billion a year by the University of Miami’s Institute for Cuban Studies. Source: Miami Herald In the Miami Herald article, Nicolás Maduro is portrayed as the perfect successor, because he is weak and ineffectual - the exact word used is his "helplessness."

Capitol Hill Cubans are asking why a large contingent of Venezuela's "top officials" met in Cuba on January 3, 2013 to discuss Venezuela's future and:

Moreover, why is there a Cuban military presence in Venezuela led by General Leonardo Ramón Andollo Valdés, Deputy Chairman of Castro's Joint Chief of Staff?

This presence is composed of at least 4,500 infantry soldiers with batallions stationed in geographically strategic locations to even intercept movements by Venezuela's own military.

Moreover, Castro's military is in charge of all intelligence and counter-intelligence operations in Venezuela.

The Chávez inauguration ceremony is scheduled for January 10th, a date specified by the country's constitution, but dismissed as merely a formality by Maduro, who says the event will be delayed if necessary. Opponents want a new election, which the constitution also calls for in the event Chávez is incapacitated or dies.

In April 2010, a retired Venezuelan General said the presence of Cuban soldiers in the army's highest decision-making levels was a security threat. In July 2011, the Hudson Institute claimed that Chávez millions of barrels of cheap oil to Cuba had "helped the Communist government maintain power" in Venezuela.

But the strategic relationship between Cuba and Venezuela goes well beyond oil and health care. In addition to sending doctors, the Castros have also dispatched senior military personnel to help train and manage Venezuelan security forces. Back in February 2010, for example, General Ramiro Valdés (an architect of Cuba's notorious G2 spy agency) came to Venezuela, supposedly to work as an "energy consultant," but really to assist Chávez in the consolidation of a Cuban-style dictatorship. Indeed, Chávez has actively sought to "Cubanize" the Venezuelan military, police, and intelligence services.

Fausta's Blog has details of a speculated "coup d'etat" or a "deepening" of the 1999 coup "when Chávez called for an illegal constituent assembly," and asks if the Castro brothers will get away with "orchestrating the Venezuelan transition." Sounds like it is a done deal, and has been for some time, unless The People who cherish freedom prevail, likely without the help of the U.S.:

Both Chavez and the Castros are banking on the second Obama Administration’s inclination not to champion democracy in the Americas or create unnecessary diplomatic waves, as they attempt to engineer political successions with a maximum of closed-door dealings and a minimum of transparency and genuine democracy. Source: Heritage Foundation

Remember when Tulsa-based Helmerich and Payne oil rigs were nationalized by Chávez; when the last free television station was seized, when Chávez tried to establish "indefinite re-elections;" when The People tried to rise up and the streets were militarized?" There will be no Venezuelan Spring.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***To the Cuban brothers, it was essential to sedate all the Venezuelans,***

Cuba has been trying to take over Venezuela for sixty years.

Just after the Cuban Revolution they contracted with an arms making firm in Canada to manufacture FN rifles for Cuba.

Those firearms were stamped with the Cuban Coat of Arms.

Several months later, in Venezuela, there was found a large cache of hidden FN rifles, all with their coat of arms ground off.

A quick dye test showed them to be Cuban FNs.

[Michael.SF.]

I attended a dinner a few weeks ago with a colleague for some clients from Venezuela. I was surprised to learn that gas sells for mere pennies at the pump, while ‘luxury’ items sell for four times the US price. One of the four said he was returning to Venezuela with $10,000 worth of: cameras, make up, jeans and other clothing items. As he said this, his colleagues all nodded as if saying: “Yes. me too.”

[SunkenCiv]

I think there’s just one refinery in the world — in the US Virgin Islands — that can handle Venezuela’s sh#tty crude. It really needs to be closed for “environmental refit”, that should take about a year. Thanks maggiesnotebook.