The above is the verbatim title of a Guardian article published about a month ago. It is taken from an exclamation by one of the aid executives working on aiding the Venezuelan’s who have emigrated from their country of birth.
To give an idea of the catastrophe, over 5.6 Million Venezuelans have left the country since 2015. That is 18.7% of its population. It is the largest displacement crisis in Latin America’s history. Ever.
But relatively few of us hear about this debacle. We have heard much about the Syrian displacement halfway around the world. That is certainly also catastrophic.
But, how is it that we know more about Syria than we do about Venezuela?
This “knowledge deficit” has a real life impact on people. For instance, at last count, total funding per capita for Syrian refugees is more than 10 times that for Venezuelans — $3,150 compared with $265.
And Syrians, for the most part, head to Europe via modern transit and infrastructure, and generous welfare and support mechanisms. But Venezuelans tramp through inhospitable, impenetrable jungles, rivers, and/or seas, oftentimes traversing one or more less developed countries before arriving at a final destination. We do not know how many have perished in their attempts, but we do know many hundreds if not thousands have. I personally know of one who set out for Colombia and has not been heard from since.
I suppose the reasons for the Venezuelan exodus are not popular with the reigning Zeitgeist, hence it is played down. If so, shame on the reigning Zeitgeist.
Venezuelans have had a difficult history since the early 19th century as has been written in this blog many times (see here and here for two examples). However, they are a resourceful and energetic people, not to mention a beautiful people. And they are our neighbors. I say “they” because I am not in Venezuela. However, I was born there and consider myself Venezuelan as much as American.
If charity begins at home, and it does. And if we are to love our neighbor as ourselves, and we are. Then we should demand more honest reporting about what goes on in the land of Venezuela.
I am pausing the series on the Cuba – Venezuela nexus in order to pay my sincere and loving respects to two childhood friends who (after my family) are among the first memories to come to mind every time I think of El Pao or Venezuela. And I think of El Pao or Venezuela on a daily basis.
Elizabeth (Lizbeth) Beran was born on a Saturday in 1953, November 7, to be precise. I was born exactly 10 days after she. We often joked about that. Children in my generation sought to be adults as quickly as possible. So, for instance, I did not like to wear short pants, because those were children’s clothing; I fought long and hard to graduate to long pants and after I did I never looked back. So, to me, Lizbeth was 10 days ahead and I could never catch up, no matter how hard I tried!
She was kind to me and always courteous to my parents. Once, in class (5th grade?), the teacher asked us what would be the proper thing to do if we were at a dinner and found that we could not properly chew down a piece of meat. I proposed that the proper thing to do would be to surreptitiously wipe your mouth with a napkin, deposit the offending morsel therein, and later dispose of the napkin. After several equally imaginative solutions offered by my classmates, Lizbeth finally spoke up, “You should use your fork and take the piece out of your mouth and place it on your plate,” she offered. And, of course, she was right.
I was fond of penguins in those days; therefore, when the class worked on a paper mache project, I made a penguin and offered it for sale, “It is yours for Bs (Bolivars) 20! And, if you buy 2, you can have both for Bs 40!.” That was my pitch. She smiled. Later that evening, at the club, before that night’s movie, her father approached me, “Ricky, if you have a product for Bs 20, and you want people to buy 2, you should offer the two for something less than Bs 40.” She was too embarrassed for me to tell me to my face. So she told her father.
Cyril (Cirilito) Serrao was born in British Guyana 5 months after Lizbeth and I were born. His family then came to El Pao and we became close childhood friends. A very vivid El Pao memory, one of the first that comes to mind whenever I think of Venezuela, is my racing, along with several buddies, down “the hill” of the mining camp. The hill was steep enough to propel us to high speeds. It was one of our daily adventures for a while in our early childhood. On one occasion, I had come down the hill, exhilarated and happy, had set my bike aside, and then waited for my fellow cyclists to come on down. As I strained to see who might come next, I saw Cyril expertly taking the next to last turn, a left from “up-the-hill” down towards the mess hall where he would then have to take a right towards the club’s parking area. But as he flew towards the mess hall, his countenance took on a look of horror (his brakes had failed) and he realized he would not be able to turn right. He let out a loud, guttural yell as he opened his eyes as wide has I’d ever seen them. Sure enough, he missed the turn and catapulted into the 4 foot deep ravine. We ran to him, fully expecting him to be dead. But no, he was OK and was bravely extricating himself from the wreck, saying, “I’m OK. I’m OK.”
His family moved to Bethlehem, PA, in 1962 and he and at least one of his brothers deeply missed El Pao for many years afterwards. His brother was the little boy I told about in my June 29, 2019 post, Gone Fishing. He had “run away from home”, telling a baffled policeman that he wanted to be taken to El Pao. We stayed in touch for many years, including my visits to Bethlehem and Los Angeles, where he lived for a while. He always sought to help me with my Uncle’s case and was one of the first to call me upon the death of my father in 1982. Once, when we had sought to look into some leads on my Uncle’s death, he said we should be called The Hardy Boys.
Lizbeth and Cyril have been the source of good memories and are reminders of the importance of decent childhood friends. I thank the Good Lord for having known them.
Lizbeth passed away yesterday. Cyril passed away in May this year, but I only learned about it a few days ago.
I miss them dearly.
Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return unto God Who gave it.
Lizbeth at one our birthday parties in El Pao, circa 1958.Lizbeth to my left, as I spoke with Mr. Beran in Puerto Ordaz, Venezuela, 1978. Cyril at an El Pao birthday party, circa 1959. Cyril (left) with his brother Gregory (center) and me years later, when we were more mature. Saturday Evening Post, November 7, 1953 Saturday Evening Post, April 17, 1954
“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.)
Guri ReservoirVenezuelan cuatroPromotional poster for the “cultural mission”.
“My entry to Caracas has been more emocional than my entry to Havana, because here I have received everything from those who have received nothing from me.” — Fidel Castro, January 23, 1959, Caracas, Venezuela
As explained in the prior post, on that seemingly propitious visit, Fidel Castro was eventually Spurned by Rómulo Betancourt, who then proceeded to defeat Castro’s efforts to subvert and overthrow his democratically elected government as well as to disrupt the next elections where the Venezuelan people elected Raúl Leoni, who also successfully blocked Castro’s nefarious efforts against Venezuela.
In early 1992, Hugo Chávez led an attempted leftist military coup against the elected president, Carlos Andrés Pérez. In November of that same year, from prison, he led yet another coup attempt. Both attempts failed but not before the deaths of at least 150 people, although historians believe several hundred were killed.
Records indicate that preparations for these coups actually began in the 1970’s under former Communist guerrilla fighter, Douglas Bravo. He initiated an “infiltration” strategy with the objective of taking power via the Venezuelan military. In the early 80s, Chávez joined in this enterprise, having founded a “Bolivariano” movement with the same objectives. Such reports help explain former president Rómulo Betancourt’s concerns and his working to organize a coalition of Latin American armies to fight Castro in the 1970s. His plans never came to fruition as his health deteriorated followed by his death in 1981.
Unsurprisingly, according to officially unconfirmed reports, as well as the excellent (but poorly edited) history, El Delfín de Fidel, Castro was behind and helped organize much of this subversive activity, even placing sleeper agents in Venezuela in the late 80s to foment unrest. His intent was to use Chávez as the face of the coup so as to avoid retaliation by the United States.
By then, Castro desperately needed financial succor, as Cuba had entered its “special period” when aid from the Soviet Union had been severely reduced. Venezuelan Major Orlando Madriz Benítez reported that Castro also worked to falsely assure President Pérez that there was no truth to reports of an impending coup. Infuriatingly, but also credibly, in addition to Castro, future president, Rafael Caldera also knew of the coup. Castro and Chávez were to have ensured he would have been named interim president as had been the case with leftist Wolfgang Larrazábal after Marcos Pérez Jiménez was overthrown 34 years earlier.
This explains why Caldera pardoned Chávez in 1994, a mere two years after the coup attempts. This freed a man who at least twice had plotted to overthrow the elected government and who went to jail with the blood of many on his hands. That same year, 1994, he flew to Cuba where Castro had organized a massive reception.
And here was the inchoate, yet palpable incunabula of Castro’s inadvertently prophetic statement, “I have received everything from those who have received nothing from me.” For here, Castro and Chávez, in a firm, mutual embrace agreed to proceed on their common path of “the anti-imperialism of our era….”
By 2009, ten years after Chavez’ first inauguration, fifteen years after his pardon and portentous visit to Havana, Cuban functionaries were present throughout the whole of the Venezuelan territory as the face of multitudinous “social programs”. By then, Cuba jointly administered the Venezuelan ports (some would drop the word jointly), she had ensconced herself firmly in the army and navy and was well on her way to management of Venezuela’s internal security apparatus, including identification documents and passport control. And there is much more.
But Cuba did not do this for free. She was receiving over 100,000 barrels of oil daily, in addition to hundreds of no bid contracts for projects and services at astronomically priced rates. So great was the financial impact that as Venezuela sank from positive to negative GDP growth, Cuba rose from negative to positive.
So, Castro’s words in 1959 can be read as a prophecy of what was to come a generation later when indeed the Venezuelan people will have begun giving “everything” to Castro while “receiving nothing from” him.
However, actually, they did receive “something” from him, as we will discuss in future posts.
Hugo Chávez as unrepentant leader of a military coup, February, 1992.Newly elected Hugo Chávez in 1998, four years after his pardon by outgoing president, Rafael Caldera (right). Chávez was inaugurated on February 2, 1999.Fidel Castro receives Hugo Chávez shortly after the latter’s pardon by President Rafael Caldera.
“What I want to say I’ll say even more forcefully. If the Castro regime continues with its policy of aggression against Venezuela and [other countries] the moment will come when those governments will lead a joint action of their armed forces by air, sea, and land to make war on Fidel Castro, on his 300 thousand militias, and on his Soviet military advisors.” — Rómulo Betancourt, papers, 1972
While it is true that Rómulo Betancourt founded the Communist Party of Costa Rica in the 1930s, it is also true that he moderated his views over the years.
That allowed him to see through and size up Castro very quickly: he must have wondered why many in Venezuela’s army leadership seemingly did not see what he saw. Vice Admiral Wolfgang Larrazábal, the leader of the military coup against Marcos Pérez Jiménez in 1958 and the provisional government’s president, was at the very least sympathetic to Fidel Castro, even giving the effusive welcome speech on Castro’s arrival in 1959. Although he vehemently denied providing weapons to Castro’s Communist guerrillas, there is much evidence to the contrary, including a letter from Fidel thanking him for his “noble gesture.”
(Although seemingly counterintuitive, the Venezuelan army was mined with leftists enamored with Communism. For example, Wolfgang Larrazábal ran for president, with Communist support. He was defeated by Betancourt. And we should not forget that Hugo Chávez himself came to prominence leading two Communist-supported army coup attempts in 1992. We in the West all-too-often unthinkingly genuflect before military leaders. We should be more cautious.)
But Larrazábal had plenty of company: Fidel was feted by many Venezuelan luminaries, including future president, Rafael Caldera, perennial presidential candidates and political leaders, such as Jóvito Villalba, and intellectual elites such as Prieto Figueroa.
President Betancourt was the only major politician in Venezuela, and very likely in all of Latin America, who understood from the start the grave danger Castro posed to national, regional, and hemispheric stability. He recognized a “gangster” who sat before him in 1959. He readily understood that this man was willing to sink his own island nation just to retain power or destroy the United States — preferably both — by any means necessary. His willingness, nay, his craving to destroy became clear to the rest of the world a few short years later during the 1962 missile crisis. This suicidal disposition is a common trait with apocalyptic dictators, including Hitler.
Betancourt, almost alone, saw this.
In 1972 he led efforts to raise a legitimate multinational Latin American army to confront Castro’s tyranny. However, this objective died along with Betancourt’s failing health and subsequent death in 1981.
But his greatest legacy also became a danger to his country and region: he not only spurned Fidel Castro, he defeated him time and again. Castro backed deadly guerrilla and army uprisings in Venezuela, including Barcelona in 1961 and Carúpano and Puerto Cabello in 1962, not to mention the very real attempts to disrupt the 1963 elections. Betancourt’s energy and vigilance ensured the defeat of all such attempts, which inflicted great loss of life and property. And profoundly angered the Cuban dictator.
We must also credit his successor, President Raúl Leoni, who acted with energy in repulsing Castro’s attacks, including an armed landing in 1967 of Cubans and Venezuelans trained in Cuba. President Leoni’s 5-year term was also attacked by Communist activists and guerrillas including yet another military coup attempt in 1966, which was quickly squashed. That same year, Leoni felt compelled to order an army search for revolutionaries in Central University in Caracas. By the end of his term, however, most subversive activity had practically ceased.
Castro never gave up on his designs on Venezuela. After Betancourt, his obsession grew apace.
In the high councils of Havana, it must have grated when another politician who saw through Castro uttered the following words upon President Betancourt’s death:
“I speak for all Americans in expressing our heartfelt sadness at the death of Rómulo Betancourt. While he was first and foremost a Venezuelan patriot, Rómulo Betancourt was an especially close friend of the United States. During the 1950s he considered the United States a refuge while he was in exile, and we were proud to receive him. We are honored that this courageous man whose life was dedicated to the principles of liberty and justice spent his final days on our shores. We join the Venezuelan people and those who love freedom around the world in mourning his death.” — President Ronald Reagan, September, 1981
It is necessary to understand the above background if one is to understand the Cuba-Venezuela nexus and the quid pro quo between Castro, Chávez, and Maduro.
To be continued.
Large crowds welcoming Fidel Castro on his visit to Venezuela, January, 1959. He was invited by Vice-Admiral Wolfgang Larrazábal, leader of the military coup against Marcos Pérez Jiménez. The crowds were composed mostly of the recently legalized Communist Party in Venezuela (Betancourt later outlawed it), but also, it must be said, many in the AD and other parties.Father Luis Manuel Padilla holds a dying Venezuelan soldier shot down in Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, during an army uprising of leftist army personnel backed by Fidel Castro’s Cuba. It was put down by Betancourt’s army but not before 200 soldiers and 400 rebels were killed. Photo above won the Pulitzer Prize for Héctor Rondón Lovera in 1963. Castro with Venezuelan politicians, clockwise, beginning from upper left: Wolfgang Larrazábal, Betancourt, Carlos Andrés Pérez, and Hugo Chávez.
