Parasitic Cuba

Parasitic Cuba / 14ymedio, Beatriz de Majo
Posted on January 22, 2016

14ymedio, also , Caracas, 7 January 2016 — With the fallacy of
development of a "mutually advantageous" cooperation that Raul Castro is
still talking about, while his country comes apart at high speed,
Communist Cuba got our revolutionary leaders to support the project that
consists of awarding the Caribbean regime a network of subsidies of
every kind that serve nothing more than to provide oxygen to the
continental leaders in repression and totalitarianism. Cuba never had
the intention, throughout the years of Chavismo, of using the facilities
provided by its generous ally to strengthen its economy, much less to
provide a solid foundation for development for the years to come.

On the contrary, this regimen of benefits is what has served to starve
the population, to make the island economy dependent on the Venezuelan
perks and, in recent years, to flirt with the Obama administration in
order to prevent, through a rapprochement, the disaster that is already
flagrantly on display.

Raul Castro just announced dramatic performance numbers for the current
economy and hypocritically attributed 2015's sagging GDP to the
international crisis, the slowdown in international consumption – also
to blame for the lower sugar exports – and, finally, for the problems of
its great benefactor, the revolutionary Venezuelan regime that is a
victim of the empire's economic war led by Cuba's new ally, the American
government.

The reality is that without Venezuela Cuba would not have survived and
Cubans would have known hours of unimaginable hardship, as they will
face in the months ahead. The Caribbean brothers are at present in a
situation similar to what they already had go through when they were
forced to do without the special relationship also offered to them by
the Soviet Union.

There has been no revision of the hunger-inducing model that Cuba has
embraced for half a century and that managed to replicate metastatically
on revolutionary ground. While the perverse and unequal relationship
with Venezuela was lubricated, they never used the funds to implement a
model that could come to the rescue of the new generations. The panorama
is getting frightening. Those who study it assure us that in coming
years the reduction in annual growth will be on the order of 4% to 7%.

The Cuban situation is dramatic now that they won't be able to count on
Venezuela and have no other saviors to rescue them. Some 45% of Cuban
exports went to Venezuela through exotic forms and corrupt arrangements.
Most of the foreign exchange earnings and energy came from Venezuelan soil.

A recapitulation is possible but it's late for Cuba. Venezuela, which is
in a similar situation having squandered the oil boom years when it
could have organized a strong and healthy economy, is confronting an
immensely complicated situation. But while it still has the ammunition
to reinvent itself, Cuba has none left.

Ordinary Cubans have understood all this and the migration north has
been increased by lack of confidence in the future and boredom, like
that faced by Venezuelans today. Today there is no lifeline. China
openly looks the other way, and while the relationship with the United
States hasn't hardened, foreign capital will not risk getting to close
to the Caribbean beaches.

There is no possible retreat that isn't ordered internally, which means
accepting this resounding failure that has cost them their blood and tears.

* Editorial Note: Beatriz de Majo is a columnist for the Venezuelan
newspaper El Nacional.

Source: Parasitic Cuba / 14ymedio, Beatriz de Majo | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/parasitic-cuba-14ymedio-beatriz-de-majo/