Vzla: The next Cuba

There is no doubt that Chavez - with Fidel Castro's help -- is creating a Cuban-style socialist state in Venezuela. Scholar Maxwell Cameron calls it the world's first "slow-motion constitutional coup."Ý In the process, Chavez also is breathing new life into Fidel Castro's dying and decrepit dictatorship. But what's even more worrisome is the fact that the mercurial Chavez is turning the large, oil rich country into a base for international terrorism.
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While most of the mainstream media have ignored this growing menace, one major news magazine, US News and World Report, followed my piece with an in-depth investigative report in October 2003, Terror Close to Home: In Venezuela, a volatile leader befriends Mideast, Colombia and Cuba, confirming my exposition and clearly detailing the danger of Chavez's links to Castro and terrorism.

The weekly newsmagazine said that its two-month review, "including interviews with dozens of US and Latin American sources, confirms the terrorist activity," adding that "the oil-rich but politically unstable nation of Venezuela is emerging as a potential hub of terrorism in the Western Hemisphere, providing assistance to Islamic radicals from the Middle East and other terrorists."

Read the rest. It's a good article. Chavez's pronouncements about the U.S. may be intended as a brush-back with the international community, particularly the Caribbean [which is highly suspicious and distrustful of the U.S.] as the baseball. As Chavez continues to proclaim the U.S. is out to get him, the U.S. is forced into a defensive position and possibly inhibited from looking closely at what is occurring within Venezuela. Thus, Chavez is free to create havoc with his terrorist buddies and Castro.