The headline in the New York Sun  reads like a bad joke but makes perfect sense: "Venezuela Outsources Intelligence Activities To Cuba." In a global society, where what economists call 'comparative advantage' rules, each country does the most of its specialty. And in Cuba, its only production of note is its repressive police state. This is the only product it can credibly export, and quite an economically damning fact.

But the substance of its number one export is very disturbing.  It has a buyer in Venezuela's Marxist dictator, Hugo Chavez. The details of this new law that Chavez has passed allows Cuban security agents to investigate Venezuelans, pull them off the street and fly them to Cuba to face kangaroo courts, demand statements from Venezuelans in Venezuela and accompany police on security raids against dissidents. Without accountability. This is unbelievable.
 
For added horror, it seems to be targetted at Venezuela's dynamic Cuban exile community, the businesspeople who fled Castro's nightmare in Cuba years ago, and who now oppose Castro and Chavez. They didn't all flee to Miami. And now Castro's thugs are free to come after them in Caracas. We need to be concerned.
 
A.M. Mora y Leon 01 26 05