by Gustavo Coronel
02/08/2010
The deteriorating Venezuelan social and political situation is turning
into an open national crisis that could accelerate Hugo Chavez's ouster
from the presidency.
One of the sectors on the brink of total collapse is electricity, due to
lack of the required investments during the last ten years. Although oil
is plentiful in the country, the required thermo-electric plants that
should have complemented the supply of hydroelectricity were not built,
while the maintenance of existing ones was sorely neglected.
Faced with a growing crisis, Chavez has turned to the failed regime of
the Castros' Cuba for advice.
Chavez has dismissed the cooperation of expert Venezuelan technicians
because they are ideologically opposed to his regime. Instead of
bringing the best of advisers and the most modern alternatives, he
decided to call in Ramiro Valdes, a man who is no electricity expert and
is much better known as a master of political repression during his
years as Cuban Minister of the Interior.
The 76 year-old Ramiro Valdes arrived in Venezuela a few days ago. He
bears the title of "Commander of the Cuban Revolution" since he is the
only Cuban who was with the Castro brothers in the attack to the Moncada
Barracks, in the landing of the Granma in Cuban soil and in the Sierra
Maestra. During the 1960's and 1970's Valdes was Minister of the
Interior and presided over the imprisonment, torture or deaths of some
70,000 Cuban dissenters. After being displaced from the ministry he
reinvented himself as a technocrat, in charge of an industrial group of
electronics. As such he has been recently readmitted into the power
circles, this time as one of the three vice-presidents of the Cuban
Cabinet, not to be confused with the vice-presidency of Cuba.
The presence of Valdes in Venezuela is the latest and probably one of
the greatest blunders Chavez has committed. The Cuban brings no added
value to the solution of the Venezuelan electricity crisis. His presence
in a position of high responsibility increases the indignation felt by
Venezuelans about the role played by Cubans in internal Venezuelan
matters. He is seen as a symbol of the Cuban invasion of Venezuela made
possible by Chavez's treason.
Cuba has nothing to offer Venezuela in the way of electrical technical
expertise. In fact, the Cuban electricity sector depends almost
exclusively on Venezuelan prodigality in the supply of highly subsidized
liquid fuels. Cuban electricity generation is very inefficient, with
very high costs and technical losses. Just as an example, Chile employs
3,200 people in the electricity sector but sells twice as much
electricity than Cuba that employs 34,000 people.
Cuban electrical shortages are as frequent as those being currently
experienced by Venezuela. Perhaps Chavez was thinking of this when he
explained the presence of Mr. Valdes by saying that Cuba had "a lot of
experience in electrical crises". That they have. But not in any way
that Venezuela can profit from.
Gustavo Coronel is a petroleum geologist, author and public policy
expert, who was elected to the Venezuelan Congress in 1998 before it was
dissolved in 1999 following the election of Hugo Chavez as president.
Coronel is currently designated as an "enemy" of the Chavez regime.
Chavez's (Cuban) Electric Personality - HUMAN EVENTS (8 February 2010)
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=35494
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