HAVANA, March 13 – Ideas and reforms of late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will continue to influence his country and Latin America as a whole, a Cuban political scientist said. In an interview with Xinhua on Tuesday, Juan Cordero with Cuba’s International Policy Research Centre also said that the close economic and political ties between Venezuela and Cuba that Chavez helped to build have “grown even stronger,” and will remain solid after his death.
Cordero said Chavez “changed the old way of integration and cooperation among countries” and promoted a mutually-beneficial relationship in which Cuba “develops human capital resources” for Venezuela and the later “contributes strategically to the development of the Cuban economy” through cheap oil supply.
As Havana’s main trade partner, Venezuela sells the island country about 100,000 barrels of oil per day at preferential prices, which Cuba pays off in part by sending highly skilled professionals, mostly in healthcare, to work in Venezuela.
“There is an extraordinarily strong and brotherly relationship that will continue,” said Cordero.
Venezuela has shown to the world the possibility of building a different development model, and what will happen next in the country is significant for its future and the future of the region, the scholar said.
“While there is a great political struggle between the country’s different political camps, there isn’t the slightest doubt about the continuity of Bolivarian revolution,” he said, referring to Venezuela’s upcoming April 14 presidential poll in which Acting President Nicolas Maduro will face off with opposition candidate Henrique Capriles.
Chavez’s legacy would endure despite “challenges of neo-liberalism and the crisis in the world’s major power centers,” said Cordero. He also said Chavez’s political beliefs, the legacy of socialist movements in Venezuela and the world will be preserved in Latin America, and the region’s reform and integration will not run out of steam.
“We don’t need a new Chavez. It will be enough with President Correa (of Ecuador), Cristina Kirchner (of Argentina), Dilma Rousseff (of Brazil), and Raul Castro (of Cuba), who will jointly promote Latin American and Caribbean unity,” Cordero noted.
He added that regional blocs Chavez initiated such as the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas (ALBA) are not going to weaken “as an alternative to the Free Trade Agreement for the Americas proposed by the U.S.”
“I think it’s very important for Latin America to continue its strategic friendship with countries such as China and Russia,” said Cordero.
BERNAMA
