[R-G] Castro Says Cuba’s Future Depends on Venezuela Referendum

[Anthony Fenton]

Castro Says Cuba’s Future Depends on Venezuela Referendum
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=ajSRLg5ZsuGQ&refer=latin_america

By Jose Orozco

Feb. 14 (Bloomberg) -- The future of Cuba depends on the results of  
tomorrow’s Venezuelan referendum on whether to eliminate term limits  
for elected officials, former Cuban president Fidel Castro said.

“Our future is inseparable from what happens next Sunday, the day of  
the referendum on the constitutional amendment,” Castro wrote in an  
editorial published on the Cuba Debate Web site. “There is no  
alternative but victory.”

Communist Cuba receives about 90,000 barrels of Venezuelan oil a day  
in exchange for services from thousands of Cuban professionals,  
including doctors, agricultural specialists and athletic trainers that  
Castro has sent to live in Venezuela since their agreement started in  
2000.

Venezuela’s constitution limits presidents to two six-year terms.  
President Hugo Chavez, a Castro ally who has been in office for 10  
years and whose current term expires in 2013, is holding the vote so  
he can run in the 2012 election. Venezuelans narrowly defeated a  
constitutional amendment in 2007 that would have lifted the term limit  
for the president only.

Castro, who led the Cuban revolution and overthrew U.S. ally Fulgencio  
Batista in 1959, has remained out of public view since 2006 after  
undergoing surgery for an intestinal ailment. He officially passed the  
presidency of Cuba to his younger brother, Raul, early last year.

The U.S. has maintained a trade embargo against Cuba since 1962, when  
Castro expropriated the land of U.S. citizens and companies. Cuban  
leaders blame the embargo for the Caribbean nation’s economic and  
social problems.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jose Orozco in Caracas at jorozco8 at bloomberg.net
Last Updated: February 14, 2009 18:20 EST