Things are not going well in Chavez's workers' paradise. The economy, frankly, sucks. Chavez is back in Cuba for more cancer surgery--that can't be good. There's a presidential election scheduled for October, and it appears folks can't wait to vote for someone else besides Chavez.
So, what's a harried dictator to do, poor chap? He can't escape to Libya, since his homeboy Mohamar came to such an unhappy end. Even worse, the pictures of how it all ended circulated widely--the folks at home could get uppity ideas about following suit, don't-cha-know. That hiding-out-in-a-drainage-culvert incident, just before the summary execution (with a bit of pre-execution torture thrown in for good measure) just doesn't sound like a good option.
Hmmm....what to do...what to do?
Of course! Ramp up a publicity campaign against 'enemies of the Revolution'! Damn, it's worked before, it's bound to work this time. After all, Fidel and his homeboys are eager to help, and we can round up people all over Latin America who think that life under Communism sucks, and are impertinent enough to talk about it in public!
Stage an 'extradition' to Cuba, with a 'stopover' in Venezuela, long enough to compose a 'confession' about local villains, and away we go!!!!
So, a North American reader asks, 'Why should we care? It's Latin America just being Latin America!'
Good question! The answers lie in the proximity and pattern of behavior.
Notice the silence in the media about this mess, taking place on the northern side of South America, where all sorts of bad actors like the Iranians and Hezboallah types are turning up? Notice the silence from the White House and the Secretary of State? A hostile state within reach of the eastern side of the Panama Canal could really create chaos.
Remember how The Left screamed non-stop about the ouster of Allende and the rule of Pinochet in Chile? For all its faults, Chile's stable and not broke. Why the lack of outrage from The Left, with Obama at the helm over Venezuela? Perhaps because they sympathize with him?
What might happen here, if things begin to go sour this late summer and fall, as they did in 2008?
What if we're next?
And, just for reference, you can read Peña's words from his previous imprisonment here.
Judge for yourself.
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