Vea abajo la versión en español.   Cuba’s intervention in Venezuela   Cuba’s intervention in Venezuela: a strategic occupation with global implications is now available.   This in-depth and comprehensive investigation describes how “revolutionary” Cuba essentially occupied Venezuela, not through a large military force in-situ but asymmetrically, by placing assets strategically to command Venezuela’ security forces, economy, information, communications, and society in general. It explores the evolution of a long-held plan that led to a radical political alliance and regional integration project and the establishment of an international criminal network. Finally, it explains how the much smaller, poorer, and underdeveloped Cuba pulled this off thanks to a unique methodological tool kit arisen from the totalitarian nature of its system. The implications are far from regional.   The Spanish version will be published in approximately 4 weeks.  Order a copy and spread the word to your contacts! Outside of the US, go to the local Amazon site and search for the title or author's name under the Books category, From the back cover:  “In this timely and impressive work, Maria Werlau documents how Cuba’s role in Venezuela goes far beyond its medical missions and now extends ominously across strategic sectors of Venezuelan society, through the information networks, economic infrastructure, law enforcement apparatus, and beyond. A chilling read.”      --Tom Gjelten, author of Bacardi and the Long Fight for Cuba. “Maria Werlau has a keen understanding of the foreign and domestic affairs of the Cuban revolution. In this commendable volume she exposes the successes the Castro brothers have had in pursuit of their priority policy, first asserted in early 1959, of strategically aligning Venezuela with Cuba. She shows that their alliance has never been as important for Cuba as it is today.”     --Brian Latell. Author of After Fidel: Raul Castro and the Future of Cuba’s Revolution. “For the detailed background on why Cuban police state methods have made the Maduro regime such a hard nut to crack, Ms. Werlau's book is an essential guide.”    --George Melloan, author and retired editorial page deputy editor/columnist at The Wall Street Journal.      ------------  Following are excerpts of a presentation by the book's author, Cuba Archive’s Executive Director, at the Captive Nations Week Summit hosted by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation at the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C., on July 15th 2019.   “Cuba’s intervention in Venezuela: the alliance of two “captive nations” to Communism" By Maria C. Werlau A recent report on Venezuela by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights confirmed the Chavista strategy to neutralize, repress, and criminalize opposition and dissent. It also reports on the militarization of State institutions, restrictions on democratic space, dismantling of institutional checks and balances, the shrinking space for independent media, patterns of grave human rights violations as well as extensive extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions. and other abuses. The deepening economic and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela is constantly in the news. At least 87% of Venezuelans now live in poverty, social services have collapsed and people go hungry and die in hospitals for lack of supplies. More than 4 million Venezuelans have fled and the mass exodus continues. This devastation in Venezuela results from the progressive transfer of Cuba’s socio-political and economic “revolutionary” template to Venezuela. It stems from a comprehensive integration plan forged by Hugo Chávez and Fidel Castro of an ideological, political, military, security, economic, judicial, and socio-cultural nature that also encompasses information and communications. Unbeknownst to the Venezuelans, Cuba had plotted for decades to secure the dominating role. Venezuela also adopted the Cuban prototype of socialism: imposed poverty on the people through centrally-planned "social" ownership of the means of production and distribution together with enclave or captive capitalism (so-called "state capitalism") for the exclusive enjoyment of the elite in power. However, the Venezuelan Bolivarians have brought plunder and ostentation to its maximum expression, likely beyond any historical precedent. My comprehensive investigation, with 800 bibliographic sources, describes how Cuba has essentially occupied Venezuela not with a traditional military force but by asymmetric means, strategically placing assets to control its economy, security forces, information, communications, and society in general. It’s impossible to know from open sources how many Cubans are in Venezuela at the service of their government —many have passed no migration controls and pose as Venezuelans— but Cuban official sources (although never reliable) have reported around 46,000 Cuban "collaborators" there working on "more than 200 projects," 21,500 of which are in the health sector; that would officially leave at least 24,500 in unspecified capacities (most would presumably be in a security or military capacity). Other sources believe the number is much larger. However, the measure of Cuba’s role is not in the number of Cubans in Venezuela, it is in the influential and wide-ranging controlling roles they have in all of Venezuelan society, exerted both inside Venezuela and, importantly, from Cuba. My study attributes Cuba’s colonization of the much larger and richer Venezuela to the Cuban military regime’s competencies or comparative advantages, enabled by the totalitarian nature of the system. Cuba’s intelligence and propaganda apparatus is formidable. In addition, the State exploits its citizens with no restraints or checks and balances through forced migration and as exported or expatriate workers (through a huge business of trafficking in persons), also engaging in transnational criminal activities. The Cuba-Venezuela integration is part of a continental plan and is sustained by shared international criminal networks. This alliance, akin to conjoined mafia states, is involved in drug trafficking, illegal mining, money laundering, and other illegal activities in conjunction with transnational actors that are enemies of liberal democracy and share nefarious interests: states such as Iran, China, and Russia, and non-state actors such as Mexican and Colombian drug cartels, Russian mafias, Hezbollah, ELN and FARC. This situation not only affects the citizens of both Venezuela and Cuba but also poses grave security threats, especially to the region.   Please support this project, order this important book.   Free Society Project, Inc., 2019. ©All rights reserved. www.CubaArchive.org    Reproduction and redistribution of this material are authorized as long as the source is cited. We need your support to continue this work. Visit our How to Help page to make a donation and assist in disseminating this work.  Cuba Archive’s Truth and Memory Project, an initiative of the Free Society Project, documents loss of life and human exploitation resulting from the Cuban revolution and promotes the understanding of transitional justice issues —truth, memory, and justice.