How did Nicolás Maduro survive? With a lot of Cuban help

The men who tore Carlos Guillén's toenails and he put a plastic bag on the seat of a counter-intelligence office in Caracas were Venezuelans, but the officers who monitored him were Cubans.

What immediately gave them was his accent, explained Guillen, a former Venezuelan army lieutenant accused of treason who, after being placed under house arrest and escaping, fled to Colombia.

The accents were also a warning for María Martínez Guzmán, a member of the Univision team who got an interview in February with the Venezuelan president. Nicolás Maduro, who was surprised by what she saw: Cubans in suits and hearing aids giving instructions to Maduro's counselors, who were wearing jeans. The president was so angry at the journalists' questions that he ordered the arrest of the team and then his expulsion from the country.

"It was very clear who was watching Maduro, who was responsible for him and who had just received orders," said Guzmán, a Cuban-American television producer in Miami. He added that the slang used by the men in the room clearly indicated that they came from the island.

Whenever the international community tries to understand how, despite the economic collapse and US sanctions, Maduro has been in power for two months, the focus is on the role played by Russia and China, donors of funds. key to his authoritarian regime.

However, Cuba and its team of field officers are also crucial as they provide intelligence support that has Juan Guaidó, the opposition legislator, recognized by more than 50 countries as the legitimate leader of Venezuela, aimed to overthrow Maduro and set up a transitional government.

"We know that Maduro's bodyguards are Cubans, we know that there is a very important Cuban presence in the two main intelligence agencies," he said. Elliott Abrams, special envoy of the US State Department in Venezuela, in an interview. "Cubans are a sort of nervous system of this regime, I would not be here without them."

In a tweet published 10 days ago, the Foreign Minister of Cuba, Bruno RodríguezHe described as lies and propaganda allegations that Cubans train and intimidate Venezuelan officials. Venezuelan government spokespersons did not respond to requests for comment.

The close relations between the two countries began after Hugo Chavez He was elected President of Venezuela in 1998 and will move closer to Fidel Castro, thus aligning their socialist ideas. Over the next decade, tens of thousands of Cubans were sent to Venezuela to establish medical and community centers, develop sports programs, and provide tools for political repression. For its part, Venezuela paid with oil.

Caracas continues to send at least 50,000 barrels a day to the island, Abrams said. Following Chavez 's death and Maduro' s arrival in power in 2013, the drop in oil prices, combined with mismanagement and corruption, has made oil deliveries increasingly burdensome. The Venezuelan crisis forces Cuba, the former banner of Soviet-backed Third World resistance, to find other ways out of poverty.

Anthony Daquin, who worked at the Ministry of the Interior when he upgraded his identification system, said he was "technically and operationally controlled by Cuban academics." Cuban Information Science ". Mr. Daquin, a consultant currently residing in the United States, explained that some 300 Cubans run the Administrative Service for Identification, Migration and Immigration and that there is "a copy of every card from the United States. Venezuelan identity "at the university located in Havana.

Zair Mundaray, a senior Venezuelan prosecutor who escaped in mid-2017, said during an interview in Bogotá that, when he was part of a council that was advising Maduro on the safety of citizens, he had seen two Cubans take notes during the meetings. Mundaray said he had spoken with the minister responsible, saying the meetings were secret, and they responded that they were present at the request of the president.

According to Guillén and other Venezuelan experts, many of Cuba's leading Cuban officials are staying in well-protected complexes, including in Fuerte Tiuna, the main military base of Caracas near Maduro's house, near the house of Maduro.