Sweets For The Sweet?

Why does Venezuela give Cuba enough oil to allow it to re-export that oil at a large profit?

After leading a bloody but inept and unsuccessful coup in 1992, Hugo Chavez was sent to prison but after a few months he received a pardon from Venezuelan President Rafael Caldera. One of the things that he did after coming out of prison was to pay Fidel Castro the first of what would become a long string of more than 30 visits. In this initial visit he was treated by Castro as a Head of State. He was received by the dictator at the airport and had the opportunity to give a speech before a large audience that included the top Cuban leaders. This modest investment by Castro in an obscure and ignorant Venezuelan demagogue paid handsomely. Today, Chavez is still an ignorant and a demagogue but, due to a combination of favorable circumstances and personal shrewdness, he has reached a very high level of political power in Venezuela and is now paying back Castro’s hospitality with a largesse both beyond Castro’s imagination and disastrous for the Venezuelan nation.

Read the rest of Hugo Chavez: the new sugar daddy.
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