Chavez legacy to endure: expert
The ideas and reforms of late Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez will continue to influence his country and Latin America as a whole, a Cuban political scientist has said.
In an interview with Xinhua on Tuesday, Juan Cordero from Cuba's International Policy Research Center said that the close economic and political ties between Venezuela and Cuba that Chavez helped to build have "grown even stronger", and will remain solid after his death.
Cordero said Chavez "changed the old way of integration and cooperation among countries" and promoted a mutually beneficial relationship in which Cuba "develops human capital resources" for Venezuela and the latter "contributes strategically to the development of the Cuban economy" through cheap oil supply. As Havana's main trade partner, Venezuela sells the island country about 100,000 barrels of oil a day at preferential prices, which Cuba pays off in part by sending highly skilled professionals, mostly in healthcare, to work in Venezuela. "There is an extraordinarily strong and brotherly relationship that will continue," Cordero said.
Xinhua
(China Daily 03/14/2013 page11)
