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Chavez turns to Cubans for help with energy crisis
 This is my fish. There are many like it, but this one is mine...President Hugo Chavez has turned to his friends in Cuba for help in tackling Venezuela's energy crisis, drawing criticism Wednesday from opponents who say that the communist-led island is notorious for its own electricity woes. The socialist leader announced that Cuban Vice President Ramiro Valdes had arrived on Tuesday to head a Cuban team advising Venezuela on its efforts to reduce energy consumption. He gave few details of what Valdes would do, but the announcement bewildered some. "It's laughable that Chavez is looking for help from Cuba," said Aixa Lopez, director of the Committee for People Affected by Power Outages, which monitors the extent of current energy shortages and rationing in Venezuela. I dunno, few people are better than the ordinary Cuban citizen at making something out of absolutely nothing ... Chavez blames a drought for bringing the country's crucial hydroelectric reservoirs to their lowest levels in decades, prompting a wave of planned and unplanned blackouts across the country. Critics acknowledge the lack of rainfall, but blame Chavez's government for failing to upgrade power generation capacity even as the country's consumption has soared. If this keeps up, Joe Kennedy will have to make some new commercials about getting oil from his "new friends in Coo-ba"... Posted by: Fred 2010-02-04 |
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