Chavistas on March

It started in its modern incarnation in Cuba when Hugo was still pulling wings off butterflies. The funding came largely from the USSR, but the sentiment that inspired it was homegrown. From Bolivar on Latin America has been a cauldron of revolution. The poison of Marxism spread through the bloodstream. The new revolutions and counter-revolutions varied greatly from the days when combatants went out of their way to minimize carnage among civilians. Che took pride in murdering government teachers and agricultural advisers. Of course, governments and right wing paramilitaries took vengeance when their wives were raped and children murdered by Communist thugs. Abuse and war crimes were rife on both sides, but after the collapse of the Soviet Union, it surely seemed as if the forces of freedom had triumphed. They had not won as a menace arose in Venezuela to reverse all the progress. Taking ideological inspiration from Lenin, Mao, and Ho, Hugo Chavez burst forth on the scene. He has used oil revenue to spread revolution in a manner the perpetually needy Castro (who actually had plenty while he starved his people as slaves) could only have imagined. Now liberty lovers face a quandary, with a US President in philosophical accord with Latin Marxists. No longer can our Southern neighbors look to the US to inspire or back the reach for liberty-they can only be slapped down if they are willing to suffer peril for freedom's sake.