Oil for food bananas
An article in The Guardian quotes Hugo at the inaguration of the PDV Caribe bribery blackmail agreement,

Chavez said the Venezuelan state oil company had created a new affiliate called PDV Caribe to coordinate the project, and that Venezuela would be willing to accept goods such as bananas or sugar for a portion of payments.

As the divine Celia would have said, ¡Azúca!

Prior to the PDV Caribe agreement signing, Fidel had paid a short visit to Caracas -- short enough there are no photos (no photos of those two narcisstic media adicts?), and nobody tried to kill him. Not that Fidel doesn't have reason for his paranoia. Fidel would be welcome in the Hamptons (via Babalu), at least on some clueless fool's back, especially if he brings fresh cigars. I predict that Hugo, too, will soon be on a t-shirt in the Hamptons, at the rate he's going, but no cigar so far.

In case there's any doubt that the PDV Caribe deal is nothing other than bribery and blackmail, Trinidad and Tobago, which are more than self-sufficient in oil, weren't signing (hat tip to Daniel and VCrisis).

Update Babalu has a nice round-up on the PDV.