Amid a desperate economic and humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, its socialist leader Nicolas Maduro is trying to shore up support from the few allies it has left, and has had state oil firm PDVSA buy foreign oil worth US$440 million and sell it at below-market prices on friendly credit terms to Cuba, Reuters reports , quoting internal company documents it has reviewed. Despite its severe cash crunch and oil industry collapsing, Venezuela has been buying foreign oil and shipping it directly to its regional ally Cuba, instead of sending its own oil there. The oil PDVSA has sent to Cuba was Russian Urals, suitable for Cuba’s refineries that were built with Soviet equipment. According to the documents reviewed by Reuters, the Venezuelan company purchased the oil from Chinese, Russian, and Swiss firms, but not in cash, rather, in commitments to deliver other crude oil cargoes, adding to the pile […]