Chavez Puts Foot in (Pro-Cuba)
Mouth
Humberto Fontova. Human
Events, September 25, 2006.
Whoever doubts Fidel Castro's demise --
political if not physical -- need only look
at Hugo Chavez recent monkeyshines at the
United Nations. If Castro is sentient he's
furious. The organ grinder gets laid up,
the leash comes off and in no time the monkey
makes a mess of things. Chavez even provoked
harsh words from Charlie Rangel.
In Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel (N.Y.),
Fidel Castro has his main (of many) booster
in the U.S. legislature. Sure, the accolades
from Harry Belafonte, Steven Spielberg,
Oliver Stone, Norman Mailer, Ted Turner,
Dan Rather, etc. are all nice. But Charlie
Rangel provides more than mere atta-boys.
He's also there to champion any and all
legislation against the so-called embargo,
to facilitate Elian's return, to rally votes
against aid to the Contras and to bear hug
Fidel during his last visit to Harlem. Best
of all, he's poised to wrangle a seat in
the House Ways and Means Committee, where
his influence over international trade will
be greatly enhanced.
In Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro has his main
financial booster. Sure, the accolades from
Britain's Galloway, Spain's Zapatero, Argentina's
Kirchner are all nice. But given recent
oil prices, the 100,000 daily barrels of
essentially free oil from Chavez actually
surpasses in value the daily subsidies from
Cuba's former Soviet patrons. Sitting atop
all that oil, Hugo is positioned to put
his money where his anti-Yankee and pro-Cuba
mouth is.
So a falling out between these two Cuba
friends and benefactors cannot help the
Castroite cause -- and would have never
come to pass if Castro was still in a position
to mentor his Venezuelan suitor. During
his General Assembly rant, Chavez had the
right idea by holding up Noam Chomsky's
book. "That's the beauty of this type
of thing, Hugo," a healthy Castro would
have advised. "So many American leftists,
scoundrels and fools are so eager to echo
our ravings that there's absolutely no need
for us to mouth them ourselves, you idiot!
From Susan Sontag to Saul Landau and from
Frank Manckiewics to Michael Moore I've
relied on such people for decades! Now look
what you've done! Prominent Democrats --
my historic allies -- from Rangel to Pelosi
are speaking against you! Democrats saved
me in the nick of time at Bay of Pigs. Democrats
then provided my Mutually-Assured-Protection
with the Kennedy-Khruschev deal. Democrats
fought tooth and nail against help to the
Nicaraguan Contras. Democrats returned Elian.
Democrats (and farm state Republicans) whittled
away the embargo. It takes a lot to get
Democrats riled against a Latin leftist
-- and here you've managed it, you idiot!"
Chavez might have taken a cue from the
Cuban Maestro's own visit in 1995 to New
York (a city he twice tried to incinerate)
for the UN's 50th anniversary festivities.
"The Toast of Manhattan!" crowed
Time magazine about Castro's reception by
the General Assembly and later by Manhattan's
Beautiful People.
"The Hottest Ticket in Manhattan!"
read a Newsweek story that week, referring
to the social swirl that engulfed Castro.
After Castro's whooping, hollering, foot-stomping
ovation in the General Assembly, he was
feted by the New York's best and brightest,
hob-knobbing with dozens of Manhattan's
glitterati, pundits and power brokers. First,
there was dinner at the Council of Foreign
Relations. After holding court there for
a rapt David Rockefeller along with Robert
McNamara, Dwayne Andreas and Random House's
Harold Evans, Castro flashed over to Mort
Zuckerman's 5th Avenue pad, where a throng
of Beltway glitterati, including a breathless
Mike Wallace, Peter Jennings, Tina Brown,
Bernard Shaw and Barbara Walters all jostled
for brief tryst, cooing and gurgling to
Castro's every comment. All clamored for
autographs and photo-ops. Diane Sawyer was
so overcome in the mass-killer's presence
that she rushed up, broke into that toothy
smile of hers, wrapped her arms around Castro
and smooched him warmly on the cheek.
"You people are the cream of the crop!"
beamed the bearded Cuban man of the people
to the smiling throng that surrounded him.
"Hear-hear!" chirped the delighted
guests while tinkling their wine glasses
in appreciation and glee.
And the mass-murderer had barely scratched
the surface of his fan club. According to
the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council,
on that visit, Castro received 250 dinner
invitations from Manhattan celebrities and
power-brokers.
Fidel's reception at the United Nations
Millennium Summit in 2000 was no less rapturous.
Afterwards he made his way to Harlem's Abyssinian
Baptist Church where pastor Calvin Butts
gushed: "It is in our tradition to
welcome all who are visionaries, revolutionaries
and who seek the liberation of all people.
God Bless you, Fidel!"
"The mainly African-American audience,
which included New York Democratic representatives
Charles Rangel and Nydia Velasquez, enthusiastically
greeted the Communist leader with a ten-minute
standing ovation." reported People's
Weekly World. "'Chants of Cuba, SI!
Embargo NO! resounded from the rafters and
sent a strong message of protest to New
York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani."
Harlem's delirious ovation for the incarcerator
of the century's longest-suffering black
political prisoner rose to the level of
an earthquake -- to a hurricane. The very
walls and rafters shook with shrieks of
"FIDEL! VIVA FIDEL!!" Elombe Brathe,
head of the "Patrice Lumumba Coalition"
and chair for the meeting, asked the audience,
"Who would you rather come to Harlem?
Fidel or Giuliani?"
"FIDEL!" They erupted. "FIDEL!
VIVA FIDEL!" Then with Congressperson
Maxine Waters looking on in rapture, Charlie
Rangel waddled up to the podium beside the
Great One. Fidel -- oomph! -- finally caught
his breath, beamed and returned the rotund
senator's mighty bear hug.
Chavez, scurrying from a hostile New York
with Rangel's carping ringing in his ears,
can only read these stories and weep. For
simply saying the UN "smelt of sulphur,"
Chavez got censured by New Yorkers. After
trying (twice) to make the entire city smell
of charred flesh, his former mentor, Fidel
Castro, got a reception to shame Simon and
Garfunkel's in Central Park.
Actually, Hugo Chavez might be more than
a blustering buffoon. Some secret meetings
at last week's Non- Aligned Conference in
Havana might point to Chavez in a role quite
similar to his host and mentor's in October
1962. Israel's intelligence webzine Debkafile
has received numerous awards including Forbes
"Best of The Web" award. Last
week they reported that during the Non-Aligned
Conference, "Iranian, Cuban and Venezuelan
teams were putting their heads together
on ways of translating their leaders' hostile
rhetoric and slogans into effective war
action against the United States... The
Iranian and Venezuelan teams then moved
their talks to Caracas where Ahmadinejad
continued his talks with Chavez on Sept
17 and 18."
Castro started chumming up with Iran from
the day of the embassy take-over in 1979.
"Together Iran and Cuba can bring America
to her knees!" raved Castro to a thunderous
ovation at Tehran University in August 2001.
The following year he built Iran a Biotechnology
plant.
"Iran's Islamic revolutionary leaders
have maintained warm ties of cooperation
and mutual assistance with Castro's Cuba
since they came to power in Tehran in 1979,"
reports DEBKA. "Chavez ...is just as
anti-American but also rated by Tehran an
easier mark.....our Iranian sources report
that Ahmadinejad also talked persuasively
to Chavez about making a show of deploying
a few Iranian-made 2,000-km range Shahab-3
missiles -- first in Venezuela then in Cuba
-- as a menace to the United States."
"The three-cornered meeting in Havana
between the Ahmadinejad, Chavez and Raul
Castro at the beginning of the week reached
a number of decisions in principle although
they remain to be fleshed out with operational
details."
But the DEBKA report continues: "The
three-way talks have thus far yielded a
solid decision for Iranian intelligence
agents, some of them sabotage specialists,
to be sent soon to Cuba and Venezuela. They
will operate in the guise of road network
and industrial development experts. Their
real mission will be to conduct surveys
on the practicability of using Cuba and
Venezuela as bases for subversive activities
against the United States and other parts
of Latin America."
There's a Republican in the White House,
so this missile plan may remain "in
principle," indefinitely. And regarding
Cuba "as a base for subversive activity
against the U.S. and Latin America"?
Since they specialize in mideast intelligence,
DEBKAfile might be forgiven for overlooking
that Cuba has been just such a base since
January 1959.
Mr. Fontova is the author of Fidel: Hollywood's
Favorite Tyrant
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© 2006 HUMAN EVENTS. All Rights Reserved.
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