On Havana’s Fifth Avenue, where the trees and lawns remain elegantly groomed even as the rest of Cuba wilts, a billboard outside the Venezuelan embassy reads: “Hasta Siempre Comandante” (Until For Ever, Commander) next to a vast picture of a smiling Hugo Chávez.
It is a staunch declaration that the two nations are bound together “for ever”. But this week, after the US operation to grab Chávez’s successor, Nicolás Maduro, those ties are in danger of unravelling.
