Chavez, The Future Of Communism?

NRO: Castro Can't Die Soon Enough For Venezuela's President

(National Review Online)  While the Cuban regime has faded into oblivion on the world stage, languishing in relative isolation, Chavez has taken a different tack. Around the globe he goes, drumming up support and making bosom buddies in some of the most despicable regimes that exist. His most recent tour has included Belarus and Vietnam; missile-lobbing North Korea only got scratched off the list at the last minute (not for a lack of mutual desire). And, of course, Chavez spent his 52nd birthday on Friday whooping it up in Iran. While his ministers made energy deals and hashed out eleven memoranda of understanding with the Islamic Republic, Chavez got to spend some cozy time with another nuclear-happy global threat, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

“Along with his loyal friends, Chavez stands against the bullying of the world hegemony like a hero and defends justice,” Ahmadinejad said Sunday in his canonization of Chavez. “He has devoted his life to serving his nation and the world freedom-seeking nations. ... To overcome colonialism and bullying usurpers, self-relying and justice-oriented men willing to devote themselves to the humanity are required. Chavez is one of such men.”

Not that Chavez and Castro haven’t teamed up for regional endeavors. Just ten days before Castro handed over the reins, he and Chavez were rallying hardcore leftists at the Mercosur summit in Argentina, where the trade bloc got a leftward jolt with the admittance of Venezuela. Chavez expressed his desire to bring poodle Evo Morales’s Bolivia into the fold, as well as Cuba. This push is less about economies and more about opposition to the U.S.-backed Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, and about Mercosur being dwarfed by NAFTA.

Does this mean Chavez will want to oust old Raul Castro and annex Cuba to Venezuela? He may dream of the eventual coup d’etat, and barging in with Venezuelan troops to save the day. He may encourage “democratic” heavily tainted elections like the dog-and-pony shows in his country, helping solidify his image as the dictator in sheep’s clothing. There would be no increase in freedoms, no sigh of relief from the Cuban exiles, no lessening of drive to swim across the ocean, just more cleverly spun misery endorsed by the “observing” Jimmy Carters of the world.

Even if Raul sits in the presidential palace smoking stogies for a while, Castro’s death will signal Chavez’s rise to the top of the ideological heap, something he’s been working on for a while. Buddying up to Fidel has lent the notion of endorsement to every Che-shirt-wearing suburban brat, to every self-described social revolutionary chucking a Molotov cocktail at a G-8 or World Bank summit.

While Fidel’s name has long been mud in much of the U.S., Chavez has weaseled his way into the States by making chums of politicians and social activists, giving cheap heating oil to selected poor folks or making allies on the antiwar left. Like-minded “revolutionaries” are eagerly doing Chavez’s bidding by setting up Bolivarian Circles around the country. I can’t remember the last time I got an angry letter from a fervent Fidel defender, but the legion of St. Hugo is always ready to strike back with his gospel. And they’re brainwashed and paranoid, just like their idol.

Chavez will become a drama queen like none other on the passing of Castro, mourning and wailing and hailing the dictator like a deity. But he will quickly assume his place at the helm of global Marxists, telling all who will listen that the crown has been passed on to him by the Cuban Commie legend. His power will grow in lockstep with his ego. And unfortunately, many may not be able to swim away from Hugo’s regime — and tightening grip on other regimes — so readily.

Bridget Johnson is a columnist at the Los Angeles Daily News. She blogs at GOP Vixen.