Although Castro lost the USSR, a new patron has been found: not a great power, but a willing supplier of the oil Cuba needs.

* Although Castro lost the USSR, a new patron has been found: not a great power, but a willing supplier of the oil Cuba needs. Fidel's benefactor and new best buddy is Hugo Chavez, leftist president of Venezuela. According to internal documents from Venezuela's state oil company, Cuba has run up a $752 million tab on Venezuelan oil shipments this past three years. Prospects for repayment are, according to the Wall Street Journal, slim. The company's employees are now forbidden to talk about the Cuban contracts, or to send letters or e-mails on the subject. All this is in the context of growing strategic collaboration between Chavez and Castro to frustrate U.S. policy throughout Latin America, seen most recently when a leftist alliance with ties to both leaders forced the resignation of Bolivia's president, Sanchez de Lozada. Chavez is also instrumental in efforts to undermine the U.S.-sponsored Free Trade Area of the Americas (which, as currently planned, will exclude Cuba). It is possible that this new run of luck for Fidel may soon end, though. Venezuela's political opposition has petitioned for a recall election, gathering over 3.4 million signatures. If Chavez permits that election and then loses it, the Cuban economy will be back to where it was when the USSR went kaput, and Fidel will be looking for yet another patron. Being a paragon of progressive humanity is all very well, but someone has to pay the bills.