Ohhh .... that`s right. Perhaps just some of you may not be aware of what I`m talking about!
The dissemination in 1999 of a video where Hugo Chávez, at that time running for president, promised to take Venezuela to the same "sea of happiness" as in Cuba raised the alarm in many sectors.
Throughout 10 years in office, several attaches and the president himself have denied that the "Bolivarian revolution" is on the same way that was taken by Cuba in 1959.
Nevertheless, the implementation of selected policies and some remarks recently made by the Head of State have refreshed his attempts at making Venezuela like Cuba.
"For the fist time, I acknowledge Marxism," the president said during the presentation of his annual report at the National Assembly.
In the opinion of Ángel Oropeza, a professor of Political Sciences with Simón Bolívar University (USB), exchange control, rationed power and water supply or customary food shortage prove that Venezuela is more similar to Cuba than any other country in the region.
"Venezuelans are increasingly living in a constrained situation. While we are not in Cuba, it seems that we are on this way. When Chávez talks about transition, he means a transition to get there," he said. "We are not under a totalitarian state, like in Cuba, because you can still find ghettos of free economy, freedom of expression and some democratic niches, but regimes like this dream of getting to totalitarianism."
Agustín Blanco Muñoz, a professor with the Central University of Venezuela (UCV), bluntly admonished: "Since 2004, after the recall referendum, Vene-Cuba was established."
http://english.eluniversal.com/2010/02/19/en_ing_esp_venezuela-could-be-s_19A3456651.shtml
