Like Castro, Chavez has risen to power by exploiting his nation's poor. Like Castro, Chavez is imprisoning those in his own county who do not see eye-to-eye with his methods, including opposition leader Enrique Capriles. Like Castro, he has romanticized the term “revolution” in order to lure the naïve and the young into a movement with a real intent that is cleverly hidden. Like Castro, he is increasing the size of his military from 50,000 to 1.5 million under the guise of “homeland security” but has many believing that this new army will be used to destabilize the Central and South American region. Chavez has also purchased 100,000 Russian-made AK-47s in order to supply the enemies of surrounding governments, including FARC, a guerrilla organization attempting to overthrow Colombia's current government, which has committed itself to eradicating the Colombian drug cartel's global influence. Like Castro, he has openly attacked the Catholic Church. Like Castro, he has courted terrorist nations, including Iran, creating unsavory alliances. Like Castro, Chavez uses the international media as a mouthpiece to create an image that he stands for the world's poor and disadvantaged. He never misses a photo-op to rub elbows with Hollywood's useful idiots, such as Sean Penn, Danny Glover, Kevin Spacey or Bush-basher Cindy Sheehan.Chavez has annointed himself Castro's torch-bearer.
But unlike Castro, Chavez needs no propping up by an outside superpower, such as Cuba received from the Soviet Union and Communist China. Venezuela has oil....
Here's a compelling op-ed published in the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel.
