Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro (right) with Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel in Caracas on April 24, 2024. JUAN BARRETO / AFP
On a Havana street in early August, a group of friends passed a phone from hand to hand as they took turns watching a two-minute video on the social media network X. They laughed out loud. The footage showed Nicolas Maduro uninstalling the WhatsApp messaging application from his phone: “WhatsApp, technological imperialism, you attack Venezuela, and now I’m free from WhatsApp,” the Venezuelan president proclaimed to an applauding audience.
Sitting on the steps of his apartment building, one member of the group (all requested anonymity) laughed, “We criticize [Cuban President Miguel] Diaz-Canel, but, next to Maduro, he’s a genius!” Another commented, more seriously: “Venezuelans already have nothing, how are they going to do without WhatsApp, which is free? Maduro will be the only one not to use it.” Then one of their neighbors walked by and snorted at them: “President Maduro is fighting against the far right, you don’t know what that is! Show some respect for the leader of a friendly country.”
They put the phone away and, as the neighbor walked away, the owner of the smartphone whispered about him: “He’s from the neighborhood Committee for the Defense of the Revolution [a branch of the Cuban Communist Party]. We don’t want to get into trouble.”
The electoral crisis in Venezuela has been closely followed in Cuba, not only by the state, which immediately recognized Maduro’s disputed “victory,” but also by the people. “It’s natural to be interested,” explained a high school teacher in Havana. “Without Venezuela’s oil, we’d go back to candlelight. It’s one of the only countries in the world that helps us. And if the right won, we’d be screwed.” According to the TankerTrackers organization, which tracks and reports crude oil shipments, Cuba continues to receive oil from Venezuela, Russia and Mexico, even though the island has faced an American embargo since 1962.
An uncomfortable situation for the regime
On the media broadcast in Cuba (TeleSUR, RT, Cubavision and Tele Rebelde), President Maduro’s victory is repeated over and over again in the news. The joint statement signed by Mexico, Brazil and Colombia, three countries led by the left and considered allies by Cuba, calling for the records of the election to be made public in order to prove the election result, have not been mentioned in the news. Similarly, only demonstrations in support of the Chavist leader have been shown, with happy Venezuelans defending the president’s victory.
“To see those of the opposition, you have to go to Facebook. You won’t learn anything by watching TV,” said a Cuban who follows the page of Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado. Media opposed to the Cuban regime, based in Spain and the US and broadcast on the internet, have also extensively covered the post-election events in Venezuela.
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Publish date : 2024-08-15 11:04:00
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