Hugo Chavez is the Viagra for the Cuban government

One of Liberty Island’s most famous bloggers, Yoani Sanchez, is back in the spotlight. In a recent interview she gave to a Venezuelan newspaper, the oppositionist said that the economic connection that exists between Cuba and Venezuela has the same effect on the Cuban government as Viagra. According to her, the support of the Venezuelan government and the many subsidies from that Latin American country are a vital necessity for the survival of the Castro regime. The most striking part of the interview was Sanchez’s metaphorical comparison, which she called somewhat harsh, but very accurate and illustrative. According to her, Hugo Chavez, the head of Venezuela, is to the Cuban government what Viagra is to an old man, because it allows him to continue the life from which he has departed, and therefore prolongs his existence as a whole.

Today, noise insulation plays an important role, especially in large cities, where there is a lot of traffic noise.

It is worth noting that the economic ties that currently exist between Venezuela and Cuba in the organization ALBA, which unites a number of Latin American countries, are incredibly strong. And while trade between Cuba and Venezuela was $200 million in 2005, it reached as much as $3 billion last 2009. According to Sanchez, breaking off these relations would hit Cuba harder than ending subsidies from the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. Every day Caracas delivers to Cuba about 90 thousand barrels of crude oil and its derivatives. A kind of payment from Havana is the presence in Venezuela of thirty thousand highly qualified Cuban doctors and their assistants, plus several hundred professional athletic trainers. Also noteworthy is the smooth flight connection between Cuba and Venezuela, which allows Venezuelan patients to promptly reach Cuban hospitals, if necessary. It’s almost always about ophthalmic surgery.