Sitting on the largest oil reserves in the world, Venezuela was once the richest nation in Latin America. Then socialism opened the door to the Castro dictatorship, and it became a satellite of communist Cuba. The most amazing part was that this invasion by Cuba was totally consensual and welcomed.
In part five of this seven-part series from La Gran Aldea, Gloria M. Bastidas continues her explanation of how Venezuela went from a rich country to a satellite of Cuba (my translation):
‘The consensual invasion’: From a rich nation to a satellite of Havana
A book published by Penguin Random House Grupo Editorial narrates with elegant prose how the Cuban regime sank its tentacles into Venezuela until it absolutely controlled everything. Notaries and registries. The issuance of IDs and passports. The Armed Forces. Intelligence services. PDVSA’s software. Ministries. Ramp 4 of Maiquetía. It’s written by Diego Maldonado, a pseudonym aimed at protecting the author’s identity. But the text is much more than that. “The consensual invasion” is the story of the monumental looting that the Castro regime carried out of Venezuela’s vast oil wealth without “firing a shot.”
Part V
They are also there to indoctrinate. Maldonado quotes this comment: “The Cuban Marta Moreno Cruz, a professor at the Cojimar School of Social Workers, proudly recalled her participation in a vast political indoctrination program designed by Fidel Castro. The plan to train cadres loyal to the Bolivarian Revolution and therefore to Castroism had begun to take shape in the Cuban womb weeks earlier. There was a hurry, and the first courses were improvised to present Hugo Chávez with a first batch of activists during his visit to the Island on June 29 of that year.
The group, molded by Cuban professors, would be baptized with the name Francisco de Miranda Front (FFM). Moreno recounted the details to an official media outlet: ‘This is one of the most important tasks I have carried out in my life, because of the significance and the challenge imposed, because there was a need to train those students in 45 days. In addition, we felt obliged to teach subjects never before taught by any of our professors, such as Venezuelan Law and Bolivarian Thought’.”
The audacity reaches such extremes.
What can a makeshift instructor (we are not talking about a historian) know about the thoughts of the Liberator? This happened in a country where an intellectual of the stature of Germán Carrera Damas wrote “The Cult of Bolívar.” Or where another great, Elías Pino Iturrieta, wrote “The Divine Bolívar.” But no. In the narrative that Havana sells to Chávez, a new catechism is necessary. A yellow-covered indoctrination. And business. Always business.
Between 2003 and 2006, according to Maldonado, who relies on official figures, Venezuela allocated $12.93 billion to the Missions. Do we have any idea what this means? It is approximately 45% of what the country’s external debt amounted to when Hugo Chávez came to power. This hemorrhage of money marks the contrast between what the Island became and what Venezuela ceased to be. Maldonado quotes statements in which Chávez points out that, according to ECLAC, Cuba achieved a growth of 12.5% for 2006, while Venezuela’s was 10.3%. In a passage from the book, the writer summarizes it with an image: The small fish eats the big one.
Chávez not only squandered the significant oil revenues. He also indebted the country in order to court Havana. For example: He requested a $70 million loan from China to install an underwater cable that would go from Venezuela to Cuba. An investigation carried out by the NGO Transparency Venezuela indicates that the governments of Chávez and Maduro received nearly $68 billion from the Asian country. And what proportion of those funds ended up in the coffers of the Island? It is not known.
“The Consensual Invasion” also accounts for how Chávez disposed of the national heritage as if the objects included therein were his property. Thus, when Fidel Castro turned 80, the pupil gave him a cup that belonged to Napoleon Bonaparte, and which was treasured by Bolívar, and a dagger that was also owned by the Liberator. The courtship to avoid losing the use of the patent takes place in different spheres.
Read the rest of this series HERE.
And no, Venezuelans are not getting rid of chavismo by way of elections. Talk about fools.