Venezuela didn’t get this bad on its own.
The narcosocialist regime in power there had extensive backing from Cuban forces. While in the past, Cuba had been notorious for deploying military personnel beyond its borders, the habit had declined somewhat after the Cold War.
Or at least become localized closer to home.
Cuban thugs have long been notorious for their dirty wetwork in Venezuela. But now they’re coming out of the closet.
Venezuela’s disputed and embattled president, Nicolas Maduro, is so fearful of his own people that he has called on Cuban guards to serve as his security detail, a top U.S. military official said.
Navy Adm. Craig S. Faller, commander of U.S. Southern Command, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday that Maduro, fearing for his own safety, has “completely surround[ed]” himself with Cuban security. “I think it’s a good sense of where the loyalty of the Venezuelan people are, that his immediate security force is made up of Cubans,” Faller told the committee.
Maduro had maintained the loyalty of the Venezuelan military through bribes with, among other things, food.
But some in the Venezuelan military have read the writing on the wall. And they can also envision a Venezuela where food isn’t so scarce that they can be paid in something better.
Maduro can no longer pay the Cubans the way the Chavez regime used to, but the lifetime that Obama threw Castro is definitely a factor in Cuba’s ability to continue upholding the murderous narcosocialist regime.
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