Foreign trade
Just days before Venezuelans are due to go to the polls, two independent oil experts have gone public to describe the oil deal between Hugo Chavez and jis mentor, Fidel Castro, as nothing short of a “swindle”. For the Venezuelan taxpayer, that is.
According to Humberto Calderon Berti and Jose Toro Hardy, more than 100,000 barrels of crude oil are being shipped every day to Cuba from Venezuela.
In exchange, Cuba was to provide thousands of doctors, nurses and healthcare services.
But the experts argue that the healthcare services have failed to meet expectations, while the subsidised oil from Venezuela has helped the Castro regime remain afloat economically.
In fact, it seems that Castro now owes Venezuela the equivalent of over $US2 billion.
And the chances of this money ever being repaid are zilch.
Which raises two pertinent questions: how do Cubans feel about becoming an economic colony of the Venezuelans? And what is in this seemingly lopsided deal for Chavez?
According to Humberto Calderon Berti and Jose Toro Hardy, more than 100,000 barrels of crude oil are being shipped every day to Cuba from Venezuela.
In exchange, Cuba was to provide thousands of doctors, nurses and healthcare services.
But the experts argue that the healthcare services have failed to meet expectations, while the subsidised oil from Venezuela has helped the Castro regime remain afloat economically.
In fact, it seems that Castro now owes Venezuela the equivalent of over $US2 billion.
And the chances of this money ever being repaid are zilch.
Which raises two pertinent questions: how do Cubans feel about becoming an economic colony of the Venezuelans? And what is in this seemingly lopsided deal for Chavez?
posted by Luis M Garcia at 11:47 am
2 Comments:
Of course nothing is in it for the Venezuelans. Their birthright is being squandered by a cheap castro imitator
Chavez, apart from being stupid, has a pathological fixation on Castro. He takes Castro for what Castro wants to be taken, and he thinks Castro's "glory" will rub off on him or be passed on to him. Needless to say, Chavez doesn't care in the least about squandering Venezuela's money on his pathetic private infatuation with a decrepit, discredited old dictator.
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