Chavez Prepares for History

While the world media focuses on the Middle East, Hugo Chavez completes visits to major anti-American capitals, then returns home to reflect on his observations and weigh them against his ambitions. Elephants in Academia writes an insightful review of Hugo’s 2006 World Tour. Chavez understands that by a convergence of location, wealth, power, philosophy and ethnicity, he is uniquely positioned on the global stage to influence the entirety of distrust and resentment towards the powerful and prosperous United States.

From King to Kingpin?: Mr. Chavez has been planning for the role of anti-American kingpin for some time, but current events may conspire to provide him with the perfect venue for his official debut. The official demise of Fidel Castro will be an invaluable opportunity to assert himself both regionally and globally. He will be able to closely identify himself with the revolutionary Fidel and his life-long crusade against the United States, but I expect he will also try to inaugurate a new era of anti-Americanism that stretches beyond Latin America to embrace like-minded fellows from Europe, the Middle East and Asia.

Upon his return to home, Chavez surprises many by naming his elder brother Adan to the post of Secretariat of the Presidency, effectively removing him as Ambassador to Cuba at the moment Fidel Castro, his mentor and revolutionary icon, lies dying. It was slightly over two weeks ago the two visited the home of Che Guevara together and I suspect the old man would perfectly understand the timing of this administrative shift. The reason may lie in the words of Adan Chavez himself.

Adan Chavez: In order to achieve a revolutionary popular movement, which would allow the taking of power, one had to have a strong influence within the popular masses and have support within the Armed Forces. … A civilian-military movement was consolidated, the Bolivarian Revolutionary Movement 200 (MBR-200). They were reading, discussing and finally decided that they had to rescue the revolutionary ideas of Simon Bolivar, Simon Rodriguez and Ezequiel Zamora.

The “taking of power” requires a combined civilian-military movement. Elder brother Adan assumes the highest civilian position in the Chavez Regime, balancing youthful friend and newly installed Defense Minister General Raul Baduel. In the space of three weeks Hugo looks in the eyes of Castro, Putin and Ahmadinejad and concludes the moment of opportunity is his for the taking. He places his two most trusted confidants at his side. Lebanon is open warfare, Castro is dying, c’est la vie, carpe diem.