Disagreements with measures taken by president Chávez led to a In the months before the coup against Chávez in April 2002, Miquilena talked with Fidel Castro and the two agreed that they did not want Venezuela to take the same path as Cuba. Chávez also convinced Miquilena that he was not going to follow a Cuban model, but later took back his word. When Miquilena realized that Chávez was taking a similar path as the Cuban government and Chávez was centralizing power around himself, he decided to retire. He met with Castro and Chávez on Margarita Island, looking to Castro for assistance with Chávez, however "Fidel had discovered the immense vanity of Chavez, and took advantage of it to get the slice of the century. Thereafter he devoted himself, in a roguish way, to take advantage of Chávez, regardless of what happened in Venezuela".