What Castro is for Chávez

In recent statements on the occasion of the brief visit paid by Raúl Castro to Caracas, Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chávez said, referring to what is being said that he is setting up a Cuban model in Venezuela: “Those words have no validity. Cuba is Cuba and Venezuela is Venezuela, but we have things that complement each other in the political, economic and social. Both governments work based on these potentialities,” adding that “Right now the degree of cooperation between Venezuela and Cuba is exemplary from every point of view and is based on a true brotherhood of the people”, as reported by the official Bolivarian News Agency.

The fear, much more than doubt, that Chávez is in one way or another following the political, economic, and social model implanted mercilessly by Fidel Castro in Cuba, is solidly based on the fact that he openly proclaims, without any qualms whatsoever, his solidarity with everything that has been done, is being done and proclaimed by the totalitarian Marxist-Leninist tyranny of Fidel Castro, whom he calls “teacher”. And, in view of these confessions, no one should be surprised that it be considered that the Chávez regime feels a blind admiration for everything that the tyranny of Fidel Castro represents in history, with its executions, imprisonments and plundering of private property.

It must be taken into consideration that in these statements and confessions, Chávez reaches the extreme of saying that he considers himself to be a son of Fidel Castro, with expressions of disproportionate affection and subordination to the totalitarian methods of one who has stayed in power for fifty years by totally violating human rights. Therefore, it is not arbitrary to consider that what Chávez wants for Venezuela is to set up there, as far as circumstances allow him to do it, everything done by Fidel Castro, whom he praises to heaven and without any scruples whatsoever. Thus, it is not a trivial statement, but opinions that are based on the way in which Chávez speaks about Castro, before whom he bows with ideological fervor as if Castro were a José Martí or a Simón Bolívar.