The Bush administration makes a lot of hue and cry about Islamic terrorism, but the real revolutionary boil-up takes place in the United States' own backyard.
In Latin America, it is not only that President Hugo Chavez of the oil-rich Venezuela is fostering friendship with Cuba's Fidel Castro, but the leftist governments have also come into power in the continent's biggest countries – Brazil and Argentina. Prospects of a pro-left government taking over in neighboring Mexico are also bright. Likewise, uprisings in Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and other smaller countries are also paving the way for the installation of leftist governments.
The level of the Americans' anxiety can be gauged not only from its religious leaders who openly preach for the assassination of Latin American leaders, but also from the four visits that U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made to the region in a short span of time.
The moving spirit behind the wind of change in the Latin America is Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has adopted open populist politics. For example, Chavez invited to his late-night television show called, "Hello President," Venezuela's naval chief as a guest a few days back where they chatted about volleyball. During the conversation, Chavez taunted his friend, Fidel Castro, saying that the Cuban team would be squarely beaten by Venezuela in a match. Other guests included those farmers whom he had given agriculture lands confiscated from the rich. Chavez’s people-friendly politics and social appeal has endeared him so much to his people that the United States and Venezuela's ruling elite have failed to topple him. All protests and conspiracies to remove him through constitutional means have also failed.
While the Bush administration silently works on its agenda of removing Chavez, the country's popular Evangelist, or Jihadi priest, Pat Robertson revealed the secret. In a statement on his Christian Broadcasting Network's 700 Club, he said that Chavez should be assassinated so that the United States avoids another $20 billion war. After such a statement, it is impossible to say that America's religious groups are not terrorists. It is also clear that America's Jihadis would be aggressive against its Christian neighbors in the same manner as they did against Iraq. In fact, the worst example of U.S. interference in Latin America was the assassination of Chile's popular President Salvador Allende.
After Robertson said that Hugo Chavez should be assassinated, many Americans have started believing that there is no dearth of Osama bin Ladens in their own country. Robertson and Jerry Falwell are the leaders of crusading Jihadis. They are in the habit of attacking Islam and its prophet. They secretly enjoy the same kind of influence on the Bush administration as was enjoyed by Osama bin Laden on the Taliban. It's obvious that because of America's tricky and sophisticated domestic politics, this relationship is not as visible as it would be in Afghanistan's simple tribal society. However, the fact remains that Bush won the election because of their help. That's why he does not deny or challenge their crusader and Jihadist statements.
Robertson's assertion makes one more thing clear: America's ruling clique is scared of Latin America's popular uprisings. Rumsfeld accused Venezuela and Cuba of supporting the revolutionaries in Bolivia, the same country where the famous 1970s revolutionary Che Guevara was assassinated. People in Ecuador are also expressing their popular sentiment and power more openly, and similar revolutions are propping up in Peru, Columbia and many smaller countries. In the 1970s, the United States had to make extraordinary efforts to curb similar revolutions.
Right now, the biggest headache for the United States is Venezuela. Chavez has confiscated large tracts of land from rich landowners and distributed among poor farmers. A large portion of Venezuela's huge revenues from oil is being spent on providing amenities to the poor. He is also bringing Cuban doctors to Venezuela to improve the country's healthcare system; in return, it will sell oil to Cuba at cheaper prices.
The Latin American situation includes big countries like Brazil and Argentina, where parties that embrace leftist economic models have come into power. Both these countries are fashioning their own national policies and rejecting the programs prescribed by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). An interesting detail is that the economic situation of these countries is gradually improving. These two big Latin America powers have also brought under control past military dictators. These countries, however, are also no more hesitant in forging closer economic and political relations with Venezuela and Cuba.
There is a unique popular uprising in Latin America, with each country hoping its own particular ideological direction. Instead of embracing Karl Marx or Lenin, President Chavez and his supporters are popularizing the revolutionary message of Jesus Christ,. They are propagating the message of Jesus Christ – a camel can pass the tip of a needle but not a rich man. They are propagating Liberation Theology founded by Latin American priest, Gustavo Gutierrez, which claimed that the Catholic Church was being used to oppress the peasants and farmers. Ever since the days of Pope John Paul, Catholic Church leaders have criticized Liberation Theology. But still, this theology surfaces and shows its colors in the shape of leaders like Chavez.
America's greatest anxiety is that while it is committed in wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and with no amicable settlement of Iran’s and North Korea's nuclear programs is in sight, Latin America's revolutionary uprising is shaping up in its own backyard. All those ideologies that were becoming the foundations of revolutions in Latin America in the 1970s have returned. Like back then, the United States fears that these ideologies could reach other continents as well. And Chavez, like Che Guevara, could galvanize a world into an uprising.
