Cuba Holds the Keys to Venezuela

A political prisoner is killed Castro-style in Caracas by state intelligence agents.

Retiring Sen. Bob Corker, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, went to Latin America last week to “get a sense of a way forward” in U.S. relations with Venezuela. Unfortunately, the Tennessee Republican took a wrong turn and ended up in Caracas. He should have gone to Havana.

Venezuela is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Cuba’s 59-year-old military dictatorship. Without the full support of Cuba’s sophisticated intelligence and advanced police-state methods, Venezuela’s chavismo would have been overthrown years ago.

Mr. Corker should have known that calling on Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro was worse than a waste of time and taxpayer resources. It was a favor to the Castro regime—yes, Raul still runs things—which for years has been promoting “dialogue” with the U.S. and the European Union as a way of buying time to tighten its grip on its satellite, Venezuela.

On the day of Mr. Corker’s visit, Fernando Alban, a member of the Venezuelan opposition, was eliminated in what had all the earmarks of a political murder. The 56-year-old Mr. Alban had been arrested at Simón Bolívar International airport in Maiquetía by security agents on Oct. 5. Three days later he died at the Caracas headquarters of Venezuela’s state intelligence agency, an arm of Cuban intel.

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