Cuban intelligence agents are deeply involved in Venezuelan affairs, according to a 2006 US diplomatic cable, one of the many leaked by WikiLeaks and published by the Spanish newspaper, El Pais.
The US Ambassador at the time, William Brownfield, wrote in the communication that Cuban spies had “direct access” to Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez.
Brownfield writes that the ties between Cuban and Venezuelan intelligence are so close that the agencies of both countries “appear to be competing with each other for the Venezuelan government’s attention”.
Another wire sent in 2010 said Cuban agents manned and monitored spying operatives against the US embassy in Caracas. The governments of Chávez and Castro have been traditionally close and outspoken opponents of the US. Similar accusations of the presence and influence of Cuban intelligence in Venezuela have been made by Venezuelan opposition groups, but US officials kept their comments secret.
The former ambassador concluded that the Cuban influence in Venezuela’s affairs could impact US interests directly. Just what is the extent of the Cuban involvement in other agencies of the Venezuelan government was harder to confirm, he wrote.
The embassy “had received no credible reports of extensive Cuban involvement in the Venezuelan military”, but there were reports that Cubans were training Hugo Chavez’s bodyguard.
Cuba’s biggest and most public quid-pro-quo with Venezuela has to be the island providing tens of thousands of health care professionals that provide basic services in poor areas. In return, Venezuela provides Cuba with subsidized oil.