14ymedio, Madrid, 30 May 2022 — Venezuela has given Cuba 60 billion dollars in the last 20 years, according to an opinion piece published in Infobae by Venezuelan opposition leader Julio Borges. The deputy and founder of the Primero Justicia party and former president of the National Assembly of Venezuela between 2017 and 2018 maintains that the amount is reached by adding economic aid, oil, power plants, medical supplies, infrastructure and food.
If the figures provided by Borges are true, they represent half of what the USSR delivered in its day and with which the Cuban State was subsidized for 30 years. It is estimated that Soviet support amounted to some 6 billion dollars a year to Cuba between 1960 and 1990, although almost all experts consider that the amount must be much higher. That support served to promote industries and economic and social programs, quite the opposite of now, when the situation is getting worse every day.
The politician cites as an example the 70,000 barrels of crude oil arriving daily at the port of Havana from Venezuela, an increase that coincides with the reduction in exports from the Caribbean country to other nations. China continues to be, however, the first recipient in terms of quantity of oil and derivatives of the Venezuelan state-owned PDVSA.
Borges laments, however, that the island is not charged for a barrel, like other countries, oil that currently sells for about 100 dollars a barrel. “That is to say, we send that sea of oil, without charging anything or receiving any consideration, in a context where our oil company is practically dismantled, where the world is juggling to find oil and is willing to pay for it at high prices and where our people are going through a humanitarian catastrophe.”.
The politician describes the situation as an “occupation” and regrets that the political bureau of the Revolution is the one that gives the orders for a relationship “of interdependence, domination and political kidnapping.” In addition, he describes Nicolás Maduro as a puppet of the Cuban regime.
Borges believes that the survival of the Cuban model is in the hands of Venezuela, since the lack of fuel could end up pushing the island’s citizens against their rulers, as happened on July 11th of last year, the ’11J’ protests, finally bringing down the system. The Venezuelan believes that oil is a leverage with which to stop the reforms and internal changes that thousands of Cubans want.
Iran, a country also sanctioned by the US and which also participates in the triangular system of oil shipments to the island, is a security risk for the continent that must be avoided, according to Borges, who recalls its links with terrorist organizations and its opposition to freedoms and democracy.
“Until we break the relationship of interdependence between Maduro and Cuba, until we neutralize this harmful binomial for Venezuelans and Cubans, but also for every Latin American country, we will not be able to restore democratic order and political stability throughout the hemisphere,” concludes the politician.
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