page_title: Cuba–Venezuela relations
section_title: Chávez and Castro
hierarchical_section_title: Cuba–Venezuela relations / 1999–present / Chávez and Castro
caption_attribution_description: English: Released to Public ID: DNSD0509136 Service Depicted: Navy Command Shown: USS YORKTOWN (CG 48) 020302N0872M506 US Navy (USN) Commander (CDR) Robert S. Kerno (left), Commanding Officer (CO), USN Ticonderoga Class Cruiser USS YORKTOWN (CG 48), points out some sights to the President of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez during a tour of the ship. The YORKTOWN is visiting the city of Willemstad at Curacao, Netherlands Antilles north of Venezuela during the 43rd annual UNITAS (Unity in Spanish) exercise. UNITAS is the largest multi-national naval exercise conducted by US, Caribbean, Central, and South American naval forces with the focus on building a hemispheric coalition for mutual defense and cooperation. Location: WILLEMSTAD, CURACAO NETHERLANDS ANTILLES (ANT)
context_page_description: Relations between Cuba and Venezuela were established in 1902. The relationship was aggravated by the Cold War, with Venezuela tending to side with the United States, while Cuba was a loyal ally of the Soviet Union. A destabilizing factor was the alleged Cuban support for the antigovernment guerrilla force that operates in remote rural areas. In 1999 the bilateral relation significantly improved during the Presidency of Hugo Chávez. Chávez formed a major alliance with Cuban president Fidel Castro and significant trade relationship with Cuba since his election in 1999. The warm relationship between the two countries continued to intensify. After decades of close ties in the Caribbean, several governments in the region started to distance from the United States. Hugo Chávez described Castro as his mentor and called Cuba "a revolutionary democracy".
  The bilateral relation includes development aid, joint business ventures, large financial transactions, exchange of energy resources and information technology, and cooperation in the fields of intelligence service and military.
context_section_description: British journalist and historian Richard Gott pointed that Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro share several similarities. Castro became a national hero in Cuba after his failed Moncada Barracks attacks on July 26, 1953, and Chávez led the unsuccessful February 1992 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt. Castro spent several years in prison and then led a two-year-long guerrilla war before assuming power in 1959 and Chávez also came to power after spending a period in prison and established his own political movement.
  In 1999, Chávez visited Havana and stated at the University of Havana (UH), "Venezuela is traveling towards the same sea as the Cuban people, a sea of happiness and of real social justice and peace". He called Castro "brother" and said:
  Here we are, as alert as ever, Fidel and Hugo, fighting with dignity and courage to defend the interests of our people, and to bring alive the idea of Bolívar and Martí. In the name of Cuba and Venezuela, I appeal for the unity of our two peoples, and of the revolutions that we both lead. Bolívar and Martí, one country united!
  Following the 2002 Venezuelan coup d'état attempt, Chávez grew closer to Cuba in order to gain their assistance so he could hold on to power. Chávez could no longer trust his own personnel in his "situation room" and brought in the G2, Cuban intelligence. One Chávez aide stated that "I saw their strategy: seal Chávez off from public, manipulate him, nourish his insecurity, find evidence of assassination plots, of betrayals. Make him paranoid." Venezuela would trade tens of thousands of barrels of oil for military personnel and intelligence from Cuba while Chávez also received assistance with social programs in order to maintain voter loyalty.
  In 2005, Chávez said that the cooperation between Cuba and Venezuela is an example of what socialism can and should do. While jointly appearing with Castro on a six-hour TV phone-in programme in August 2005, Chávez said he did not see Cuba as a dictatorship; he said "It's a revolutionary democracy". Chávez said the democracy promoted by George W. Bush is "a false democracy of the elite" and a "democracy of bombs". Chávez regards Castro as his mentor.
  In May 2008, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolás Maduro, leading a delegation in Cuba to attend the 12th meeting of the Cuba-Venezuela Political Consultation Body, met Vice President of Cuba Carlos Lage Dávila at the Ministers' Council headquarters to discuss the situation in Latin America and other bilateral issues. At the opening of the meeting, Maduro said Cuban Revolution "showed us the path of the second, real political, economic, social and cultural independence 50 years ago". Describing the relations between the two countries, he said "our relation is a profound, longstanding, strategic fraternity by which we have become a single people, a single nation, as dreamed by the liberating fathers". Maduro held talks with Raúl Castro also and discussed issues related to bilateral relations.
caption: Chávez visiting the USS Yorktown, a US Navy ship docked at Curaçao in the Netherlands Antilles, in 2002
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