An argument between the U.S. and Venezuela is putting Cuba in a very awkward position

An argument between the U.S. and Venezuela is putting Cuba in a very
awkward position
By Nick Miroff March 10 at 2:02 PM

HAVANA — President Obama's attempt to mend relations with Cuba while
simultaneously turning the screws on Venezuela, Havana's closest ally,
is making for some fascinating triangular diplomacy.

Late Monday night, after Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro gave a
speech blasting new U.S. sanctions on his administration as an attempt
to overthrow him, the Cuban government affirmed its "unconditional
support" for Maduro.

Then 88-year-old Fidel Castro chimed in for good measure.

"Dear Nicolás Maduro," Castro wrote in a brief message published by
Cuban state media that was almost tight enough for a Twitter posting. "I
congratulate you for your brilliant and brave speech in the face of the
brutal plans by the United States government."

"Your words will go down in history as proof that humanity can and will
know the truth," he wrote.

It was telling that the message of support came from the elder Castro,
and not his brother, President Raúl Castro.

Raúl Castro, 83, is the one who has worked out the diplomatic
reconciliation with Obama and will meet with the U.S. president next
month at the Summit of the Americas in Panama.

His older brother has offered tepid support for the U.S. thaw he's
charted, but nothing that would qualify as enthusiasm. And while Raúl
Castro also regularly pledges to support the Venezuelan president, he
does not have the same close personal relationship with Maduro, who,
like his predecessor Hugo Chávez, embraces Fidel Castro as a political
mentor.

Venezuela remains Cuba's top trading partner, and as Caracas replaces
Havana as the principal U.S. adversary in the region, the Castro
government is caught in the middle. Havana can't afford to hitch its
fortunes to the cash-squeezed Venezuelan government and its wobbly
president, who lacks the political acumen of Chávez.

In the coming weeks and at the Panama summit, Cuba is likely to continue
voicing support for Venezuela while quietly working out its new
relationship with the United States. It'll be a delicate balancing act,
especially as critics of Obama's opening to Cuba blame rights abuses in
Venezuela on a repressive security strategy that they say is being
dictated from Havana.

Since the White House announced the sanctions on Monday, Venezuela, Cuba
and many in the region have reacted less to those measures than to
language in the executive order characterizing the Maduro government as
a threat to U.S. national security.

U.S. officials say it's boilerplate language used whenever such
sanctions are imposed, but Venezuela's government and its backers have
seized on the "security threat" element to claim that it's some sort of
prelude to an American attack.

After defiantly bestowing promotions on one of the security officials
named on the U.S. sanctions list, Maduro said Monday night that he'll
seek emergency decree powers "to fight imperialism."

Venezuela's opposition leaders say it's a naked power grab to further
stifle dissent.

Asked to respond to Maduro's charge of U.S. plotting, State Department
spokesman Jen Psaki said Tuesday that the administration's "intention is
not promoting unrest in Venezuela … or undermining its government."
Instead, she said, "it's about making clear that we don't accept human
rights abusers or corrupt officials."

The "goal of sanctions," Psaki said, "is to persuade the government to
change their behavior."

She cautioned against focusing on the "national emergency" and security
threat language in Obama's executive order, noting that it is standard
in such orders. "It's important for everybody to understand that this is
how we describe the process of naming sanctions," Psaki said. Monday's
Venezuela order was "consistent with how we announce and how we describe
putting sanctions and putting these executive orders in place."

Meanwhile, tensions in Venezuela were further inflamed Tuesday by a
comment made on a pro-government talk show by Roy Chaderton, the Maduro
government's ambassador to the Organization of American States (OAS),
which is organizing the Panama summit.

In response, apparently, to a question about how the government would
handle new security threats, Chaderton told viewers that when snipers
shoot opposition demonstrators in the head, a different sound is
emitted. "Because their cranial cavity is empty," he said dryly,
presumably trying to make a joke.

Chaderton's comment appeared with the Twitter hashtag "ObamaYankeeGoHome."

Anti-government street demonstrations in the country last year left 43
dead, and some of the victims were shot by Venezuelan security forces,
who have since been granted additional latitude to use lethal force
against protesters.

Karen DeYoung contributed to this report.

Nick Miroff is a Latin America correspondent for The Post, roaming from
the U.S.-Mexico borderlands to South America's southern cone. He has
been a staff writer since 2006.

Source: An argument between the U.S. and Venezuela is putting Cuba in a
very awkward position - The Washington Post -
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2015/03/10/the-escalating-u-s-venezuela-clash-where-cuba-fits-in/