New York Times: ‘It Is Unspeakable’: How Maduro Used Cuban Doctors to Coerce Venezuela Voters
“…To maintain their hold over Venezuela, [President Nicolás] Maduro and his supporters have often used the nation’s economic collapse to their advantage, dangling food before hungry voters, promising extra subsidies if he won, and demanding that people present identification cards tied to government rations when they came to the polls. But participants in the schemes say Mr. Maduro and his supporters have deployed another tool as well: Cuba’s international medical corps. In interviews, 16 members of Cuba’s medical missions to Venezuela — a signature element of relations between the two countries — described a system of deliberate political manipulation in which their services were wielded to secure votes for the governing Socialist Party, often through coercion…” (Casey/Zarate, 3/17).