“Havana obtained and retains full access to the data of all Venezuelans, of all foreigners who reside in Venezuela, and of all industries and companies. The Cuban government knows where each of the 30 Million Venezuelans live, whether they change residences, what properties they have, if they marry or divorce, what transactions they perform, and whether they enter or exit the country. ‘Yes, everything is in Cuba, of course, the data base of all Venezuelans. From [Havana] the data base is accessed, it can be altered with added or deleted data, for instance to prohibit or allow travel….'” La Invasión Consentida, Diego G. Maldonado (pseudonym)

This is the fourth in a series of posts which seek to give an overview of Castro’s intense interest in Venezuela since before his descent from the Sierra Madre in 1958. Early on, the scent of petroleum and the power and riches it had generated for Venezuela was something he was compelled to harness to enable his hold onto power as well as to extend his influence and revolution to other countries. Success in this endeavor required that Venezuela be converted into a Cuban colony.

President Rómulo Betancourt saw and understood this immediately and, in effect, told Castro to bug off, which rejection served to intensify both Castro’s hatred towards Betancourt and his obsession with Venezuela, as manifested by numerous blood soaked guerrilla and sabotage efforts throughout the sixties. Betancourt sought to raise a multinational Latin American army to deal with Castro head on but his efforts foundered on rapidly declining health in the 70s in death in 1981.

(Incidentally, there is much evidence of Venezuelan assistance to Castro during his guerrilla wars in Cuba in the 1950s. A classic case of be-careful-what-you-wish-for. But that is a story for another day.)

Whereas Castro and his designs on Venezuela were ruthlessly blocked by Betancourt, they, however, were magnanimously and joyfully welcomed by Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro. Understanding this reality, sheds light on the grotesque yet very real anomaly of a small, poor island boasting outdated technology in every endeavor of life (save that of domestic espionage and terror) dominating and directing a country which is vastly larger, more modern, more powerful, and astronomically richer. It took over a half century to get to this point, although the denouement (1999 to the present) was very rapid. And there is no end in sight.

The absolute submission of Venezuela to Cuba is no longer a secret to the Venezuelan people, although the exact terms of the hundreds of multi-billion-dollar agreements and contracts are known to very few.

For example, incredibly, Chávez contracted the Cuban state as consultant for the operations of the country’s electrical grid. The picture is jolting: an island with a geographical area of under 45,000 square miles is hired to “technically assess and assist” a land 8 times the size of Cuba (over 352,000 square miles) including the 5th largest hydroelectric power station on earth! “In the 90s I had traveled to Cuba to give courses to a group of laborers. I would never have imagined that, a few years later, one of them would come here as my boss,” said an engineer of Corpolec (Venezuela’s electric company). “The Cubans had never seen a hydroelectric system and now they were assigned to lead the maintenance operations in Guri, the fifth largest hydroelectric plant in the world.”

Venezuela also contracted over 100,000 Cubans as “social workers” to go door-to-door to install fluorescent light bulbs in Venezuelan homes, as if Venezuelans needed strangers to teach them how to change lighting. She also agreed to purchase thermoelectric power plants from Cuba, paying astronomically for the privilege. Cuba imported these from Brazil. So, here is the picture: Venezuela and Brazil are among the world’s leaders in the production of electricity. They are neighbors. They share a border. Yet, in the infinite wisdom of Venezuela’s “Energy Revolution”, it was necessary to purchase thermoelectric plants from Cuba, who would in turn purchase them from Brazil, and export them to Venezuela.

All to which the Venezuelan people are heard to say, “Oh, yes! The Cubans are real experts! In blackouts, that is. So, if you have power, and are in need of a blackout, just call them.” Venezuelans are known to have a wonderfully crazy sense of humor. As my madrina used to say, “The Venezuelan will manage to come up with a joke while he is being strangled to death.” And that remains true through these desperate times.

Another climax of the absurd is the “Misión Cultural Corazón Adentro” (Cultural Mission) whereby 1,200 Cubans were contracted to “rescue” the Venezuelan culture. “When I arrived, I had to learn to play the cuatro so that I could in turn teach it to the people here,” said the leader of a Cuban squadron sent to Venezuela. The cuatro is a 4-stringed guitar played in various Latin American countries, including Venezuela, where it is considered the fundamental instrument of the country’s folklore. A Venezuelan group — C4 Trío — won a Grammy with a cuatro album. But it was necessary for Cubans to come, learn the Venezuelan cuatro, and then teach it to the benighted locals.

The profit margin on these contracts are astronomical, based on the few that have been obtained or leaked. That is Cuba’s reason for them: to provide the island with needed currency.

But what is Venezuela’s reason for them?

To be continued.

(As I write the above, tens of thousands of Cubans have taken to march on streets throughout the island to loudly and intensely protest the Communist regime and its tyranny. The demonstrators are wearing and waving American and Cuban flags and chanting “freedom”, “Cuba libre”, and many other such expressions of acute longing to be set at liberty. These manifestations reflect almost unimaginable courage. The regime has called its minions to “combat” and has attempted to shut down the internet and attacked the few reporters that are there. “This is why we are calling all the revolutionaries of our country, all the Communists, to go to the streets anywhere that these provocations are happening today, from now on through all these days,” Miguel Díaz-Canel, the “president” of Cuba declared late Sunday. True to form, Cuban military has already opened fire on unarmed, defenseless Cuban villagers. There are reports, albeit spotty, that over 50 demonstrators or opponents of the regime have either disappeared or been arrested. Cuba is applying the same measures they imposed on Venezuela to violently suppress the demonstrations against the Chávez and Maduro regimes and their fraudulent elections. Pray for the people of Cuba.)