Opinion - News Analysis

Chavez talks of Cuban and Venezuelan confederation

Venezuela and Cuba have cemented their alliance with a range of economic deals which President Hugo Chavez said could pave the way to a confederation. The Venezuelan leader wrapped up a three-day visit to the island with agreements on 14 joint ventures, including oil refining, nickel production, fishing and tourism. The package consolidated Venezuela’s role as ally and benefactor in easing Cuba’s economic crunch and boosting the regime’s chance of retaini ng power after the death of the ailing leader Fidel Castro.

Mr. Chavez signed the deals on Monday with Mr. Fidel Castro’s younger brother Raul, signalling a determination on both sides to sustain the alliance despite the apparent lack of chemistry between the Venezuelan and Cuba’s acting leader. Venezuela’s socialist revolution was forging closer ties with its Caribbean brother, Mr. Chavez said. “Cuba and Venezuela could easily form a confederation of states, two republics in one, two countries in one. This is no delirium.”

The former soldier, who was making his seventh visit to Havana, has used his country’s vast oil reserves to reduce Washington’s sway over Latin America and ease the impact of its embargo on Cuba. Discounted Venezuelan oil and other deals are valued at around £1.5 billion a year, not far off Moscow’s Soviet-era subsidies and a lifeline to a government struggling to ease crippling fuel, transport, and food shortages.

There are plans to modernise the decaying Cienfuegos refinery so that it could process 65,000 barrels of crude a day, distil gas, and make petrochemical products. For its part Cuba has dispatched thousands of nurses, doctors, and teachers to slums in Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and other left-wing allies.

In addition to socialist solidarity Mr. Chavez’s talk of confederation stems from his dream of uniting Latin America along the principles of Simon Bolivar, the region’s 19th century liberation hero. Nevertheless many middle class Venezuelans are emigrating over fears of expropriations and socialist indoctrination in schools. Polls show few Venezuelans want to swap their Americanised consumer culture for Mr. Chavez’s vision of a “new socialist man” but that has not dented his high popularity.

During a weekend meeting with Mr. Fidel Castro, Mr. Chavez praised him in quasi-religious tones as “the father of all revolutionaries” and “our father, who is in the water, earth and air.” The 81-year-old Cuban leader, convalescing from a serious intestinal illness, looked frail but alert.

A U.S. State Department spokesman said in response: “We are delighted that Fidel Castro has had an opportunity to discuss things with his friend President Chavez. It’s too bad that in almost half a century of misrule in Cuba, he’s never had the same conversation with his own people.” — ©Guardian Newspapers Limited, 2007

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