Article about the Castro Chavez relationhsip in today’s Wall Street Journal (by subscription). Among the highlights:
“Over the past three years, Cuba has run up a massive debt of $752 million for oil shipped by Venezuela‘s state oil company, according to people close to the company and internal documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
Though Venezuelan officials deny that Cuba is falling behind, people familiar with the matter say the debt is piling up and that the government has made little effort to collect. This makes the shipments a crucial subsidy that is helping keep the island nation’s economy afloat as it struggles with the impact of endemic mismanagement, declining sugar sales and longstanding U.S. sanctions.
While the subsidy doesn’t approach what the Soviets were doling out to Cuba at the height of the Cold War, it underlines the growing strategic alliance between Venezuela‘s Mr. Chávez, a populist former coup plotter elected in 1998, and Cuba‘s Mr. Castro. At a time of rising anti-American and anti-free-trade sentiments, U.S. officials fear that the combination of Venezuela‘s oil billions and Mr. Castro’s well-honed political skills could cause trouble for the U.S. throughout a restless Latin America.
The debt represents about 80% of the roughly $931 million owed PDVSA by its clients, say the people close to the company. In 2002, PDVSA had revenue of $42.58 billion and net income of $2.59 billion, according to its latest filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The company is still struggling to bring oil production back to prestrike levels of 3.1 million barrels a day, according to independent oil analysts.
Prospects for repayment appear slim. Although Cuba has managed to double its own production since 1991, so far it has only found sulfur-laden heavy oil, which is less valuable. The country is pinning hopes of finding more oil on newly announced projects by foreign companies to explore in deeper waters.”
The Devil's Excrement 
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