Stunned Cuba ponders future without Chavez

(Reuters) - A mix of sorrow, self-interest and dread took hold of Cuba Tuesday evening as word spread like wildfire that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who had done so much for the country, was dead.

While the official evening newscast devoted its entire program to events unfolding in Caracas, the government reaction was slow in coming.

Later in the evening Cuba declared three days of mourning, and eulogized Chavez saying his "Bolivarian Revolution" was "irreversible" and that Cuba would continue to "accompany Venezuelans in their struggles."

Chavez's resolute ideological embrace of Cuba helped propel the once isolated communist island back into the center of regional politics, and oil-rich Venezuela's largesse under Chavez proved a life saver for the embargoed and near bankrupt Caribbean island after the collapse of its longtime benefactor, the Soviet Union.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/2013/03/06/us-venezuela-chavez-cuba-idUSBRE9250M920130306