The Links Between Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez

Watching Chavez and Castro is like watching a dog take a shit. It's disgusting. I have seen such chum pal camaraderie only in prison break movies from the late fifties.

Chavez is a serious threat to U.S. power in Latin America. Castro is a fading star. The relationship between them is one of pragmatic efficacy. Cuba needs energy, Chavez needs popular support, so Cuba sends doctors so that Chavez can fulfill his promise of free health-care for all. Chavez also wants to stick it to the U.S.. He's made it his singular goal in life to battle the United States, not just in Latin America, but anywhere he can find allies. He just got through visiting the United Nations where he made a passionate speech in an attempt to rally Muslim nations to his cause. He's courting.

He's not just courting Castro, he's gathering allies all throughout South America, and wherever else he can over the rest of the globe. I recently saw him making friends with Danny Glover, that poor fool.

Back to Chavez and Castro. One point I don't see elaborated enough on is the rumor that Chavez sought Castro's support during the period that led up to the coup. For those of you who don't know, here's a recap.

Chavez is sworn into office in 1998, he then manages to pass a whole new Venezuelan constitution in less than a year. He manages this feat of strength by suspending the National Assembly and removing from office hundreds of judges who might oppose him. To be fair, the constitution was a big win for the millions of Venezuelans living in poverty. But to be even more fair, it came at a high cost. Most of the power that once resided in the legislature, under the new constitution, is in the hands of the president. Chavez has publicly stated he intends to stay in power for 25 years, despite the fact that the constitution he created limits his stay to 2 terms. He's pushing for another referendum to amend the constitution to extend term limits to three terms.

So he gets his constitution, but there's strong right wing opposition. The right wingers in Venezuela are a pack of vultures mostly. So it's the choice between an evil genius, and a pack of vultures. Chavez has done an amazing job of mobilizing the peasants and the working class.

The anti-Chavez forces at some point decide that Chavez must be forcibly removed from office. They stage a coup, the US is likely consulted but is not directly involved militarily. This is the type of thing that happens all the time in Latin America, it's not really worth worrying about it seems.

But the anti-Chavez forces announce their intent to remove Chavez in the damn news. Likely, Chavez had been anticipating something like this and already had made friends with Castro by giving him that sweet oil deal. So, Castro owes Chavez a favor. At this point the people of Venezuela are foaming at the mouth on both sides. There is a huge demonstration in Caracas.

Left wing and right wing protesters meet in the streets, but nothing is violent. That's when the shooting starts. Snipers are firing into the pro-Chavez crowds. Hell breaks loose. One out of four Venezuelans carry guns. Pro-Chavez protesters begin firing at their opposition, and in the direction of the sniper fire, and at the metropolitan police.

It is at this point that I would like to expound on the nature of the relationship between Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro. There are rumors from within the administration that those snipers were Cuban snipers. Why would Cuban snipers be firing at Chavez's supporters?

If one accepts as true that the snipers were Cubans, the best explanation is that Chavez orchestrated the massacre to mobilize his supporters for the next phase of his defensive strategy. Cuba would not have been able to send troops to support Chavez, and Chavez likely wanted to avoid open conflict inside the military between his supporters and those who sided with his opponents. So he allowed himself to be captured, and let the opposition run through it's plan. The opposition was even stupid enough to describe in detail how the media coverage had been manipulated to lend legitimacy to the coup.

Will Super-Villains ever learn? Meanwhile Chavez is spirited away to some secret island prison. The new government settles into the old palace, and is again, profound in it's idiocy. It uses the same presidential guard who were loyal to Chavez, to guard itself. Needless to say that as soon as they felt safe, the presidential guard moved in and took over the presidential palace. The new government went into hiding. The factions within the army loyal to Chavez begin to reassemble the previous government, so that when Chavez is finally returned, it all seems like some kind of magic miracle that happened because the people chose for it to happen. During this time, Castro remains on Chavez's side. Saying that he never resigned, even though he actually did in order to lull the conspirators into a false sense of security.

You can't make stuff like this up, it's too good to be made up. And that's why Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro are friends. Because when somebody's staging a military coup on your ass and you need to kill some of your own people to boost your image, only Cuban snipers will do.