MIAMI.- Between 1999 and 2001, in the first years of Hugo Chávez’s mandate, they reached Venezuela More than 500 Cubans from Havana. One of the “visitors”, in the midst of the rise of a social agreement, was Leticia Gómez Hernández, the new Minister of Tourismin the most turbulent times in national history.
Gómez, 65 years old, Cuban by birth and naturalized, was appointed by Nicolás Maduro, in a partial cabinet reshuffle, despite the fact that the current Constitution requires that ministers be born in Venezuela, because they hold positions that involve the country’s security and sovereignty.
But she is said to be part of the Cuban G2. She entered the country with the help of the current Prime Minister of Cuba, Manuel Marrero Cruz, and represents Cuba’s interests in the country: that oil reaches the Island, in the midst of the growing poverty of its population, abuses and health crises.
It could be part of an old exchange: Havana’s task is to keep Maduro in power, as it did with Chavez, the book says. The Consented Invasion“But it can go even further,” they say.
Venezuelan oil supplies to Cuba so far this year stand at around 27,000 barrels per day (bpd), down from 51,500 bpd in the same period in 2023, according to reports last June.
Efficient tourism
Gómez’s appointment is considered “an outrage against the citizens.” “What else is Maduro going to give to the Cubans?” asks a seasoned Venezuelan journalist.
Gómez, who settled on Margarita Island, in the state of Nueva Esparta in the north of the country, is an engineer and has a history of tourism work in the country, where she “made an impression” on the Chavista regimes, according to networks and journalistic reports. Before her appointment, she was Vice Minister of International Tourism. But there are no published records of her first years in Venezuelan territory.
In 2015, Gómez was appointed manager of the Venetur Hotel on Margarita Island, the new name of the international Margarita Hilton&Suites hotel that was one of the companies expropriated by Chávez in 2009.
Then, in 2018, she was promoted to president of the Venezuelan state-owned tourism company, Venetur, and in 2021 she was deputy minister of International Tourism, the “efficient right-hand woman” of Alí Padrón, who served as minister.
She has been accused of being linked to Cubans who run large businesses in several countries, including the United States.
Narrow relations
While she held both positions, she was accused of being a trusted person of the former minister Marleny Contreras and her husband Diosdado Cabello, first vice president of the ruling PSUV party and whom Maduro also appointed as head of the Ministry of the Interior.
During this time, Gómez also worked to strengthen relations between the two Caribbean countries.
He favored Cuban and Russian tourism in the country, although he held meetings with tourism authorities from other European and Latin American countries, it is said.
Gómez reported on his social networks about several meetings with businessmen at fairs in Cuba and Venezuela and stated that “each Cuban visitor left the country with up to 5,000 dollars in purchases made,” and that tourists had “two planes available on each tour to take the merchandise,” according to publications.
In addition, more recently, it was learned that he is advancing “strategies” to open a Venetur commercial office in Havana, with direct communication, after meeting with the vice consul of Venezuela in Cuba, Rosa Alizo. The news was published on the PSUV website a month ago.
Meanwhile, Gómez is preparing to hold the Second Binational Tourism Exchange, in its Venezuela-Colombia edition, from September 5 to 9, amid the economic uncertainty caused by the political crisis and unprecedented repression.
FOUNTAIN: With information from networks, proyectoinventario.org, martinoticias.com