By Isabel Sanchez (AFP)
HAVANA — A health scare for Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who
underwent surgery for cancer in Cuba, has generated deep concern in the
Americas' lone communist country which depends politically and
economically on him.
Chavez, 56, has been in Cuba for three weeks. Officials say he has
undergone two rounds of surgery, the first to treat a pelvic abscess and
another to extract a cancerous tumor.
"Hopefully, nothing will happen to him. Without Chavez, things in Cuba
would get extremely rough again like before. We would be back to
blackouts," said Elisa Castellanos, a 68-year-old housewife.
'Before' refers to the period before Chavez was first elected president
in 1999. His arrival to power meant that post-Cold War communist Cuba,
politically adrift and its economy in tatters after losing the East bloc
support it depended on for three decades, got a new lease on life.
The lease has lasted a decade; now Chavez's mortality potentially could
be its demise.
Venezuela became isolated Cuba's main political ally -- supporting and
helping fund regional economic and media initiatives -- and its main
economic partner and underpinning.
Critically, Chavez's Venezuela has provided cut-rate oil to Cuba, which
Havana otherwise would be hard-pressed to afford. That has kept Cuban
power plants on line mostly after years of maddening blackouts.
Venezuela now provides Cuba with 100,000 bpd of its crude -- just over
half Cuba's consumption.
Cuba in turn also sends almost 40,000 teachers and doctors to Venezuela
for whose services the Cuban government is paid as contractor before it
compensates its workers.
Venezuela's state oil giant PDVSA meanwhile is helping Cuba explore its
waters so it can tap its own significant reserves in the Gulf of Mexico.
If Cuba is able to meet its own energy needs and even sell oil, its
regime could project itself decades into the future.
Venezuela is involved in Cuban projects small and big, like remodeling
and refitting the oil refinery in Cienfuegos, Cuba, and building a fiber
optic cable for high-speed Internet. Their cooperation also is tight on
food supplies, technology, transportation, and tourism.
Their 10-year-old close cooperation, which generates about six billion
dollars a year for Cuba -- the island's top source of income -- and is
without precedent in Latin America.
The arrangement quietly riles the United States, whom the leftist allies
decry as an "imperialist" peril.
Chavez's portrait is a common sight on political billboards on roads and
even in barbershops across Cuba, alongside images of revolutionary icon
Fidel Castro, 84, and President Raul Castro, 80.
The Venezuelan president has kept support strong even after a
then-ailing Fidel Castro handed power to his brother Raul in 2006. Just
June 8, Chavez signed another cooperation agreement worth 1.3 billion
dollars.
"Chavez is our brother, he is Fidel's son. We love him a lot, he is
really another Cuban, a Cuban leader. He gives us oil, highways,
cooperation," Maria Gamito, a retired teacher, told AFP.
Raul Castro is implementing some small economic reforms, mostly
decentralizing and allowing more self-employment. But he also has
refused to embrace China-style capitalism, and any political opening.
"The relationship with Venezuela is the most strategic one the Cuban
government has," Arturo Lopez-Levy at the University of Denver, told AFP.
It can survive without Chavez, but under much tougher circumstances, he
stressed.
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