Venezuela Says Goodbye to Its Lil Friend, While the Rest of the Continent Cheers

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/20/venezuela-says-goodbye-to-its-lil-friend-while-the-rest-of-the-continent-cheers.html

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But one country won’t be benefiting from the new détente: Venezuela, the most anti-American country on the continent today, and until Wednesday, Cuba’s main political ally.
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That’s why Wednesday’s announcements by Obama and Castro shocked many Venezuelans, who wondered if Maduro was aware of negotiations between the two countries or if he had heard of it for the first time on TV. (Likely the latter, because a high-ranking U.S. official said on Wednesday that Cuba-Venezuela relations had not even been mentioned during the bilateral negotiations.)

“Cuba’s priorities were more important than loyalty to Maduro, who is now being left behind as an anachronistic, out of fashion leader when all of the other countries are brokering deals with Washington,” said Carlos Romero, a Caracas-based political analyst.

Like the Castro brothers, Maduro often uses scapegoat tactics to deflect attention from his country’s economic free-fall. However, there is a significant difference: Venezuela is not under embargo and the U.S. remains Venezuela’s main trading partner, despite Maduro’s anti-American rhetoric. A Cuba-U.S. rapprochement will make it increasingly hard for his government to blame the U.S. for its economic problems.