Press Advisory

Center for a Free Cuba statement on the crisis in Venezuela

Any effort to involve Cuba in resolving Venezuela’s crisis is not only misguided, but doomed to failure.

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Center for a Free Cuba. Washington DC. August 29, 2024. The Center for a Free Cuba has published a statement on the crisis in Venezuela with what should be done that it has shared yesterday and today with policy makers, and international human rights organizations.

Havana is seeking to preserve Maduro’s rule by backing his efforts to steal the election in Venezuela, and crack down on the pro-democracy movement. Now is not the time to return to failed past policies, but to hold the Cuban government accountable for its crimes against humanity in Venezuela.

Cuban agents have trained Venezuelan officials in torture techniques, and directly engaged in the torture of Venezuelan dissidents.

Despite this, some like former Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda Gutman, while recognizing Havana’s negative role, are advocating concessions in exchange for the Castro regime to agree to a democratic opening in Venezuela. This approach was tried by the Obama Administration in 2015, and did not succeed.

Any attempt to engage Havana in addressing Venezuela’s situation ignores recent history, and is doomed to fail. Mr. Maduro’s continued leadership of Venezuela is in the Cuban dictatorship’s interests.

What should be done in light of this reality to assist Venezuela’s nonviolent democratic transition?

The Center is calling on democracies to: 1) Engage in a public diplomacy initiative to expose Havana’s role in the Venezuelans crisis.2) Restore and strengthen pre-existing sanctions on both Cuba and Venezuela, and apply targeted sanctions to regime oppressors, as well as those in the chain of command ordering repression against Venezuelans. 3) Back efforts to apply multilateral sanctions against the Maduro regime, and other regimes engaged in repression in Venezuela.

“Any effort to involve Cuba in resolving Venezuela’s crisis is not only misguided, but doomed to failure.  It is in the Cuban dictatorship’s interests that Mr. Maduro remain as Venezuela’s leader”, said Guillermo Marmol, chairman of the Center for a Free Cuba.

Statement on the situation in Venezuela

Venezuelans are in the midst of an existential crisis to reclaim their democracy and save their country. The international community and Venezuelan citizens are focused on Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, and the military that supports him. Left out of the conversation is the role the Cuban dictatorship is now playing to prop up the Venezuelan dictatorship.

Since 1959, the Castro regime has sought to overthrow Venezuela’s social democracy in favor of a communist dictatorship. In 1963, Cuban communist leader Blas Roca spoke the quiet part out loud when he told a Havana rally that when the communists gained full control and “make themselves owners of the great riches in oil, aluminum and everything their earth imprisons, then all of America shall burn.”

What the Castro brothers failed to do through guerilla warfare against Venezuela in the 1960s, and Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chavez’s failed military coup in 1992, they eventually accomplished in 1998 through the ballot box.

Beginning in 2000, Venezuela began sending 55,000 barrels per day of oil to Cuba, in exchange for doctors, military, and intelligence officials that have helped both Hugo Chavez, and his successor Nicolas Maduro dismantle Venezuelan democracy, build a police state, and hang on to power.

This means that Cuban intelligence officers are supervising the torture of Venezuelan dissidents.  There are recorded instances in which Cuban officials have personally carried out the torture.

Former Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda Gutman recognizes that the “Venezuelan Armed Forces are not entirely Venezuelan; they are partly Cuban, and it is the Cubans who oversee everything.” He also observes, in what can only be described as an understatement, that “the only government that truly has influence over Maduro is Havana’s”.

However Castañeda Gutman suggests a policy that has failed in the past. He calls for the United States to negotiate full normalization, lifting of sanctions in exchange for a transition to occur in which “part of Venezuela’s cooperation with Cuba to continue.”

Secretary of State John Kerry in 2015 reported that “the United States and Cuba are talking about ways to solve the Venezuelan crisis.”  Then Mr. Maduro bought more time in power, and the crisis deepened.  In 2020 Former Secretary Kerry said, “It’s fair to say that everybody shares a little bit of disappointment about the direction that the government in Cuba chose to go” after the normalization of U.S.-Cuba ties, adding that, “Cuba seemed to harden down after the initial steps were taken.” This is an understatement.

Castañeda makes the argument that the economic crisis in Cuba presents an opportunity, but fails to mention that Mexico supplied at least 2.8 million barrels of oil to Cuba in 2023. The Russians and the Chinese are also propping up Havana, and have interests in maintaining Maduro in power.

Asking the Cuban dictatorship to help Venezuela is like asking Jack the Ripper to help end knife violence in London. Havana is an obstacle to Venezuelan liberty, not a solution.

What should be done in light of this reality?

• Engage in a public diplomacy initiative to expose Havana’s role in the Venezuelans crisis.
• Restore and strengthen preexisting sanctions on both Cuba and Venezuela, and apply targeted sanctions to regime oppressors, as well as those in the chain of command ordering repression against Venezuelans.
• Back efforts to apply multilateral sanctions against the Maduro regime, and other regimes engaged in repression in Venezuela.

Any effort to involve Cuba in resolving Venezuela’s crisis is not only misguided, but doomed to failure.  It is in Cuba’s interests that Mr. Maduro remain as Venezuela’s leader.

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