Bolivia's Message to Cuba

Bolivian Vice President Alvaro García Linera says Bolivia and other Latin American countries need to help Cuba more.

"Today, the great task of our country and progressive governments in Latin America is to quickly initiate the political brotherhood of our leaders and our governments channeling it into an economic and productive brotherhood. We must take a qualitative leap that will change our position in a time of continental combat," Garcia said. 

"We are advancing in meetings, understanding the positions of social organizations, but in the case of the economy, we are moving very slowly; it is the very expensive, but it is also necessary," he said, noting that the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (Celac) ought to step up, leading the movement towards continental integration and economic stability.

The Bolivian political leadership is always a curious mix. All this talk of the economy is vague, I imagine deliberately so. Bolivia's own economic model is moderate and praised by the International Monetary Fund. Therefore it is best poised to help Cuba by serving as a model for dismantling the current Cuban economy. Obviously that's not what García Linera is intimating but rhetoric and practice have been two widely different things.