CHAVEZ, ORTEGA & MORALES: Los Tres Amigos

Last week it was reported that Hugo Chavez, dictator of Venezuela, Daniel Ortega, president Nicaragua and Evo Morales, president of Bolivia, three of the four most dangerous leaders in Latin America were on their way to see castro. Libya’s Moamar Gaddafi gave Ortega a jet plane to go to Cuba. Was this because the ailing communist dictator was on his deathbed? We can only hope.

When I read that these three were headed to see their comandante, I had a flashback to the movie “Scarface.” Alejandro Sosa, the Bolivian drug lord, shows Tony Montana the interview by the reporter who was identifying the Latin American drug kingpins and showing their pictures on tv. Sosa then sent Tony to New York to accompany Alberto, Sosa’s butler/assassin and drive him around to take out the reporter via car bomb before he made another scheduled tv appearance.

I pictured the same scenario, except with these three castro clones as the dangerous men whose images flashed across the screen: with the reporter saying why each one is dangerous:

Hugo Chavez:

• is using his revenue from oil imports to buy 100,000 Kalashnikov rifles, 30 attack helicopters from the Russians and possibly a $4 billion purchase of advanced MiG fighter jets.

• has been accused by the The Colombian government (and other South American neighbors) of supporting Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the narco-terrorist organization, a faction which is at war with the Colombia government.

• has seized control of the country's wealth has introduced a penal code that criminalizes dissent. Any person who opposes Chavez faces violence or prison.

• has taken control of the tv stations. Pictures showing violence against anti-Chavez protestors are not allowed to be shown on public or private Venezuelan television.

• has declared war on large land-owners has been granted initial approval to bypass congress and rule by decree for 18 months.

• said he wants to do away with limits on the number of terms a president can serve.

• has no parliamentary check on the amount of arms he purchases fully supports Iran which in turn fully supports the destruction of Israel and also funds suicide bombers in Iraq

• he makes no bones about hating America, the “Imperialists.”

Daniel Ortega:

• seized private lands and civil war killed as many as 50,000 people during his first term as president of Nicaragua had policies that included mandatory military service, confiscation of private property and press censorship.

• stated in a campaign speech last year: "Yankee Reagan forbade peace.

• he wanted to bring death and destruction to the region” which demonstrates his anti-American sentiment.

• counts Colonel Gaddafi , Hugo Chavez, Fidel Castro and the late Saddam Hussein among his close friends

Evo Morales:

• has seized Bolivia’s energy production told foreign companies to renegotiate their contracts with his government or get out of the country

• calls capitalism the worst enemy of humanity

• believes that the free trade area of the Americas is an agreement to legalize the colonization of the Americas

• is an outspoken critic of US drug policy and coca plant eradication programs.

Although the US has said they will cut off aid to poverty-stricken Nicaragua and Ortega claims to have changed his ways, found Catholicism and is a “kinder, gentler” revolutionary, none of this will stop what is quickly becoming a repeat of the 1980’s. During that time, Castro funded communist subversive groups throughout Latin America and it seems that Chavez, who claims castro is his “model,” has taken over where the hopefully already dead castro has left off. The rest of the world, which has never had much interest in what goes on in Latin America, is in for a rude awakening and better start paying attention before this becomes a problem of catastrophic proportions one day.