Caudillos to Communism

“While we’ve been so preoccupied with
the Middle East and terrorism,
China has really seized the strategic initiative in
Latin America.”
—William R. Hawkins, U.S. Business and Industry Council

In today’s global geopolitical theater many stages and acts are running simultaneously. While the audience is held mostly spellbound by center stage—the Mideast and terrorism with all of its high drama—almost unnoticed, but barely less important, are the strategic acts playing out on other stages: Russia and the former Soviet Union, North Korea, Central Asia, African genocide and AIDS, China and Latin America. Of considerable importance is Latin America, a knife poised at the soft underbelly of one of the main actors on center stage: the United States.

In 19th-century wars of independence, strong leaders rose to power whose commanding legacies persist to this day in every nation of South America and into Central America and the Caribbean. These strongmen embodied the best (and worst) of large landowners, generals, and beguiling charm, all rolled into one, and they were called caudillos. One of the greatest caudillos was Simon Bolivar (1783-1830), called El Liberator, and “the George Washington of South America,” who led the nations of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama and Venezuela to independence from Spain. Bolivar still commands vastly more respect than modern-day oligarchs, Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, both wannabe caudillos who are in reality just tinhorn communist dictators. But that doesn’t stop Castro, and especially Chavez, from falsely hitching their wagons to Bolivar’s star to further their own goals of uniting Latin America into a single anti-U.S. communist bloc.

Sadly, and not without some basis, most Latin Americans categorize U.S. involvement in their affairs as either commercial opportunism (e.g., corporate banana empires) or militaristic imperialism (such as Nicaragua and the Iran-Contras or Colombia’s ongoing drug wars), punctuated by long periods of outright neglect. This sets the Latin American stage for anti-U.S. sentiment in a region of massive poverty and which, with the exception of Chile, has never known real democracy, and where doors open to anyone promising to alleviate misery—Che Guevara, Castro, Chavez or Red China. Preoccupied at center stage, most U.S. citizens are ignorant of developing political threats in Latin America, but ignorance is perilous. Here’s a rundown of the political state of affairs in various Latin American nations highlighting the need for concern.

Venezuela: Hugo Chavez originally came to power by military coup although polls today indicate he is supported by less than one-third of the country’s population. Chavez, whose personal hero is Fidel Castro, and who visited and praised Saddam Hussein, now rules Venezuela, which is the U.S.’s second most important oil provider. He has nationalized Venezuelan oil and many other companies and put them under direct government control.

In September 2001, Major Juan Diaz Castillo, Chavez’s former pilot and Air Force Operations Chief, who defected, said Chavez used the Venezuelan Air Force to send humanitarian aid to the Taliban, he wanted to send troops to help the Taliban but couldn’t circumvent U.S. blockades, and he donated large amounts of money to al Qaeda. Intelligence indicates the Chavez regime may also be protecting and training thousands of Colombian and Arab terrorists, including members of Hezbollah. Margarita Island marks the key location for these terrorist operations and funding.

Chavez rules by near martial law, Cuban intelligence officers train his security and intelligence forces and operate key naval facilities, and Venezuela’s government is permeated with Cuban intelligence personnel. Chavez has hired hundreds of Cuban teachers to insert anti-American, pro-socialist propaganda into the educational system. Analysts warn that Chavez’s plans for Venezuela bear an uncanny resemblance to Castro’s blueprint to turn Chile into a Marxist state in the 1960s-70s, when Castro sent thousands of Cuban paramilitaries there to assist Allende.

In January 2003, Major Diaz gave critical insight about Chavez to interviewer J.R. Nyquist: “Hugo Chavez is working to form a bloc of countries to fight the U.S. For Hugo Chavez the U.S. is the enemy. And he is convinced that by forming a bloc of countries he can attack the U.S. in various ways. One way would be an economic attack. And on top of this he is not only looking for an alliance with a bloc of countries but also an alliance with terrorist groups because this will give him a direct way to attack the U.S. He sees in the terrorists a force with a defined intention to attack the U.S.”

Major Diaz also said, “We have proof that Chavez has aided the Colombian [narco-] guerrillas in a big way. Hugo Chavez’s aspiration is that the guerrillas will soon take power in Colombia and join the anti-U.S. Latin American bloc.” Diaz also said that Venezuela’s march toward communism “is only a revolution of a minority … not a revolution of the people.” This offers scant comfort, as that’s the historic pattern for how all Communists have grabbed power. The U.S. and Latinos need to awake to the reality that Hugo Chavez is no liberator or caudillo, but a ruthless emerging communist dictator bent on destruction of the U.S. in league with worldwide terrorists.

Brazil: President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva is at best a far left socialist whose heroes are Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein and Hugo Chavez. On the day he took office, da Silva embraced an “axis of good” running through Brazil, Venezuela and Cuba. Ryan Mauro reports that da Silva placed “Trotskyites, Communist Party officials, and open radicals in power in high places as Cabinet ministers, government officials and advisors, and throughout the government, intelligence, and military.” Da Silva’s foreign policy chief, Marco Aurelio Garcia, is a communist and founder and director of the Sao Paulo Forum, a group that actively supports terrorism.

Argentina: The Pew Research Center says that anti-Americanism is the highest in Argentina of any Latin American country, at 73%. In the wake of its severe political and economic crisis and financial collapse, far left candidate Nestor Kirchner, favored by Castro, da Silva and Chavez, became president in May 2003. His election fit well into plans for the “Cubanization” of Latin America and gave an immediate boost to similar movements in Uruguay, Bolivia and Peru.

Ecuador: Lucio Gutierrez became president shortly after da Silva in Brazil and praises Chavez and Castro. He was a militant member of the Marxist left Peronist Party.

Bolivia: It appears that Evo Morales of the leftist MAS (Movement Toward Socialism) Party may be the next president.

Peru & Uruguay: Both Peru’s Alejandro Toledo and Uruguay’s Tabare Vazquez are leftist.

Colombia: A significant portion of the country is controlled by FARC, communist narco-terrorists who supply most of the drugs used on the streets of America.

Panama: Following U.S. withdrawal from the Panama Canal Zone, Hutchison Whampoa—a Hong Kong-based Chinese front company for the PLA (People’s Liberation Army) and Beijing’s Communist Party—leased and now controls the ports on both ends of the Panama Canal. Panama’s population is only 2 million, but it now has 40,000 legal Chinese residents and 150,000 illegal Chinese residents. Chinese Triads (organized crime) have a foothold in many Panamanian companies and Panama is close to becoming a de facto Chinese puppet. China-Cuba agreements mean far left radicals in Panama, loyal to Castro, could gain power.

Chile: Since the 1970s a U.S. ally and the only free and democratic country in South America. However, Chile’s new president, Ricardo Lagos, is a militant socialist who was Chile’s ambassador to the Soviet Union under Marxist Allende’s government from 1970-73.

Mexico: Nowhere does corruption run more rampant than Mexico. And despite his apparent friendship with the U.S., President Vicente Fox has formed a strategic alliance with Brazil’s da Silva. The Mexican government infrastructure is made up largely of socialists, who exert real control, and a radial leftist, Lopez Obrador, may become Mexico’s next president. Obrador is currently Mexico City mayor, has an approval rating of 80%, and the Washington Post describes him as a Mexican version of Brazil’s da Silva.

Haiti: The country is in chaos and the stage is set for the return of Marxist Jean-Bertrand Aristide.

Nicaragua: The communist Sandanistas are back in power.

Terrorism in Latin America: It’s believed about 20,000 Lebanese Muslims live in the frontier area where Brazil, Paraguay and Argentina meet, and that it is a Hezbollah terrorist operational base. Al Qaeda, the Party of Islamic Unification, the Egyptian branch of Muslim Brotherhood, and Hamas are also reported in the area. Muslims are spreading into Chile, Ecuador and Venezuela. Ryan Mauro reports: “The Sao Paulo Forum in December 2001 was attended by Fidel Castro, da Silva, Daniel Ortega (former communist dictator of Nicaragua), and representatives from the Communist Parties of Argentina, Peru, Cuba, Chile, Colombia, Uruguay and Venezuela; the ELN and FARC terrorist rebels of Colombia; Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement of Peru; and according to some sources, Middle Eastern terrorist groups. The chief of the Latin American division of the Iraqi Baath Party, as well as representatives of Venezuela, Brazil, Syria, Libya, Iran, North Korea and Cuba attended. Other regular attendees include representatives of Nicaragua’s Sandinistas, El Salvador’s FMLN, Irish Republican Army, Basque ETA, and PFLP-GC.”

The China Factor: In November 2004, Chinese President Hu Jintao conducted a two-week tour of Latin America and concluded several major trade agreements and over 400 business deals with several emerging leftist governments. China’s rapidly industrializing economy needs massive natural resources, and Latin America is natural resources rich. China is capital rich, and Hu Jintao promised to spend over $100 billion in the next decade on Latin American infrastructure, natural resources and trade and investment deals, including oil. Politically, it appears business agreements between communist China’s “state capitalism” and dysfunctional, left-leaning, anti-U.S. governments in Latin America are marriages made in Marxist utopia. China has now been granted observer status at the OAS (Organization of American States), and is likely to conclude a bilateral trade deal with Chile (formerly the staunchest U.S. ally in Latin America) by the end of 2005.

The Domino Theory: In The New American magazine (Jan 24), William F. Jasper reminds readers of The Domino Theory that was central to the Vietnam War. It was believed that “If the West didn’t oppose the Communist forces backed by Moscow and Beijing, the theory went, the countries of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam would fall to Communism, one by one, in quick succession. Millions of people would be slaughtered, and whole nations would be turned into concentration camps. The Asian nations in the region that didn’t fall to overt Communist takeover would come under Red China’s dominance, nonetheless. The liberal intelligentsia sneered at such ‘simplistic’ and ‘paranoid’ notions. They were wrong, of course—fatally horribly wrong. The ‘simplistic’ theory proved to be fact. Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam did fall like dominoes. Millions were slaughtered, and the survivors were enslaved in concentration camps. The rest of Asia has come under China’s economic and military dominance.” The implications of The Domino Theory for Latin America ought to be glaringly obvious. Judging from events, it appears the dominos have already begun to fall.

Strategic Implications: Whoever controls the Panama Canal—that’s now China—has a chokehold on a huge portion of global commerce (200 million tons of cargo pass through the canal each year). Anti-U.S. Venezuela, the U.S.’s second most important oil provider, wants to conclude oil supply agreements with thirsty China. If so, delivery should not be a problem, as China now controls the Panama Canal through which the oil would transit, but that means critical U.S. oil supplies could be diverted.

Brazil, now closely allied with Red China, is a nuclear-capable nation. China and Brazil have a joint space venture with two satellites already in orbit, thus the potential clearly exists to develop nuclear missile delivery systems.

It’s been reported that terrorists are among illegal immigrants crossing the U.S. southern border. In view of all the above, control of U.S. borders is a growing and strategic issue central to U.S. homeland security. U.S. citizens are probably faced with both increased danger from terrorists and more Big Brother controls.

Clearly, the global geopolitical theater has stages where monumental historical performances are unfolding largely unnoticed. Center stage could shift dramatically at some point to the western hemisphere. Hopefully the U.S. will wake up to the danger in its own backyard before a fatal surprise collapses the set.

“It’s a new day. Communism is dead.
It’s even dead in Cuba.
I hate to say it,
it's dead.”
—Senator Barbara [Brain Dead] Boxer
U.S. Senate hearing, May 2002