[LINK] "Long-time allies, Cuba and Venezuela go different ways"

[rfmcdonald]

The Toronto Star's Oakland Ross traced much of the rationale for Cuba's renewal of relations with the United States, and presumed weakening of ties with Venezuela, to the last country's collapsing oil-based economy.

Just one day after announcing the restoration of diplomatic ties between his country and Cuba – following five decades of enmity – U.S. President Barack Obama turned sharply to the right last week and slapped a series of economic sanctions on Venezuela, long Cuba’s closest ally in the region and a socialist fellow traveller to boot.

Suddenly, the oil-rich but financially troubled South American country seemed to be very much alone, and at the worst time possible.

“Two days ago, Maduro was ordering everyone to burn their visas to the United States,” tweeted opposition firebrand Maria Corina Machado, referring to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a fierce critic of the U.S. government. “Meanwhile, Raul Castro was applying for his.”

In all likelihood, Cuba’s leader will have to wait a while before filling out a U.S. visa application of his own, but that’s a detail. The big story is that he has staked his country’s political and economic future on improved relations with his longtime adversaries in Washington, the opposite route being taken by his erstwhile geopolitical soulmates in Caracas.

Instead, Venezuela’s Maduro finds himself newly isolated, with his country in pitiable financial shape, beset by spiralling inflation, widespread import shortages, and a shrinking economy, not to mention toxic political unrest – and all of this was before international oil prices began to plummet from a four-year high this past summer.