CUBA / VENEZUELA : Chavez Revealed On Chemo; Chavez/Castro Connection Called Cubazuela.

      Venezuela VP Maduro announced that since mid-January ailing President Hugo Chavez has been undergoing 'tough' chemotherapy treatment in a sealed-off wing of a Caracas military hospital...and 'continues to battle for his life.'
      Of course...there have been rumors again that Chavez had died.

      They were fed by Twitter, Spain's conservative ABC newspaper, Colombia's Radio Caracol and especially Panama's former OAS official...who claimed Hugo was taken off life support after being declared brain dead.
      Today's WSJ featured a fascinating backgrounder by Jose de Cordoba on the Hugo Chavez/Fidel Castro relationship....and the future of Cubazuela.
     He writes that Fidel saw a young impressionable Hugo as an easy mark...for access to cheap oil.
      Some estimate that Venezuela provides 22% of Cuba's GDP in over 300 direct and indirect deals...amounting to some $10 billion annually since 2007.
     Chavez opponents have long lamented and resented Chavez's Cuba handlers...who they claim are defacto running the government.
     Observers marvel at how a small poor country came to run a much richer larger nation.
     One likens it to...Puerto Rico running the USA.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323884304578328252463429328.html?mod=googlenews_wsj