Oil headed to Cuba

last updated 8 January 2015

Caracas, Venezuela

Opposition politicians this week asked Venezuela’s Supreme Court to block President Hugo Chavez from sending subsidized oil shipments to Cuba. The oil is important to Chavez’s friend and political ally Cuban leader Fidel Castro. Opposition leaders say Venezuela is in the midst of an economic crisis and can’t afford to sell Castro oil at such reduced prices. The shipments were suspended five months ago during a failed coup. Chavez said he would go ahead with the 53,000-barrel-a-day deliveries no matter what. “If they want to indict me,” he said, “then I’m waiting here for them to put on the handcuffs.”