The Cuban leader once again condemned the capture of Maduro and ratified the continuity of the strategic alliance between Havana and Caracas.
MADRID, Spain.- The Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel reported this Thursday that he had a telephone conversation with Delcy Rodríguez, interim president of Venezuela by decision of the Supreme Court of Justice (TSJ) after the capture of Nicolás Maduro on January 3, and that he ratified Havana’s will to “continue strengthening” bilateral relations.
In a message published in the social networkDíaz-Canel noted: “I had a telephone conversation with the President in Charge of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez. I reiterated our strong condemnation of the military aggression of the United States and the kidnapping of Constitutional President Nicolás Maduro and companion Cilia Flores.”
In a second tweet, the Cuban president added: “I expressed our support and solidarity with the Homeland of Bolívar and Chávez, their people and the Bolivarian government; as well as the decision to continue strengthening the historical relations of brotherhood and cooperation.”
The statements occur in a context of strong political and diplomatic reconfiguration after the US military operation that culminated in the capture of Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Representative Cilia Flores. A few days later, the United States administration sent Delcy Rodríguez a list of conditions to allow Venezuela to increase extraction and re-market its oil, including ending its strategic ties with Cuba, China, Russia and Iran.
The alliance between Havana and Caracas has been one of the central axes of Cuban foreign policy since the early 2000s. Both governments maintain an agreement by which the Island has received Venezuelan crude oil in exchange for the provision of professional services, mainly doctors and teachers, but also security and military personnel.
On January 8th, The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, appeared publicly in Venezuela to participate in an official act headed by Delcy Rodríguez in tribute to Cubans and Venezuelans who were part of Nicolás Maduro’s protection device and who died during the US operation that concluded with their capture.
For more than two decades, the Cuban regime systematically denied the presence of troops, intelligence agents or military personnel in Venezuelan territory. However, the United States operation revealed the existence of this deployment, dismantling years of official denials and confirming the strategic nature, also in the field of security, of the alliance between both regimes.
