Sympathy for El Diablo

So the ailing Cuban Dictator, Fidel Castro, states; “My elemental duty is not to cling to positions, or even less to obstruct the path of younger people, but to share experiences and ideas whose modest worth comes from the exceptional era in which I lived.”

The truth is that this tyrant has clung to power for almost 50 years. Since 1959 he has ruled Cuba as his personal gulag while executing or jailing his political opposition. Suddenly Castro expects the world to believe him when he declares that he wouldn’t selfishly cling to power. Even a casual observer would have to note that this statement is only the result of his deteriorating health and his desire for the continued oppression of his country after his death. However, Castro is not a political figure that is viewed critically in our media or among our political elites.

Latin America’s most hated dictator was Chilean General Augusto Pinochet. He is well known for the repression of civil liberties, murder and torture that was committed by his junta in the seventies. His regime is believed to have murdered about 3,000 people and no sane person could praise the dictator’s morality. On the other hand, Fidel Castro has murdered about 14,000. So Castro’s regime has been much more repressive than Pinochet’s and the Cuban dictator has not given up power to make room for democratic reform like Pinochet did.

Yet many prominent Americans openly admire this Communist dictator. Take these quotes for example…

“Cuba’s Elvis!” (Dan Rather.) “Castro is the most honest and courageous politician I’ve ever met! Viva Fidel!” (Jesse Jackson.) “If you believe in freedom, justice and equality, you have no choice but to support Fidel Castro!” (Harry Belafonte.) “Castro is a genius and Cuba is a Paradise!” (Jack Nicholson) “The greatest hero of the century!” (Norman Mailer) “One helluva guy!” (Ted Turner.)

Barbara Walters is one of many American journalists who have expressed admiration for both Castro and his protégé, Hugo Chavez, the most authoritarian rulers in this hemisphere. Over the last century the Americas were rife with dictatorships. Today all of the rightwing dictatorships are gone and have been replaced by republics with a much more democratic representation of the people. Castro’s leftwing junta is the only dictatorship left and Venezuela teeters at the brink thanks to their despotic leader, Hugo Chavez.

Despite this, Walters is infamous for stating, “For Castro, freedom begins with education”.

Why do prominent journalists act as such willing dupes for totalitarians?




In this picture Barbara Walters meets with Chavez cronies in their Caracas stronghold, giving them a treasure trove of publicity. Jose Gregorio Cedeno, in the red cap, is president of a Chavez-controlled community council. The woman in blue, Doris Seren, is a teacher and member of the council. Such teachers are important to the “Revolution”, which emphasizes a complete revision of history to reflect the Socialist viewpoint that almost all conflict throughout history was the result of class struggle. It reminds me of the Castro statement… Walters would have been closer to the truth if she changed just one word…

“For Castro, freedom begins with RE-education”.

In any case, the picture was taken as a part of a staged political propaganda tour that was orchestrated by Chavez in exchange for an interview that was to occur shortly thereafter. The tour and the interview were eagerly promoted in the Chavez controlled media. One advertisement stated, “We invite all Venezuelans to watch the interview of the year. The President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, ‘Comandante’ Hugo Chavez Frias, leader of the XXI Century Socialism, in an exclusive interview with the journalist Barbara Walters, star anchorwoman of the main US network ABC news”.

While Walters felt obligated to address a few of the many negative characteristics that define Chavez, she clearly has a great deal of affection for the Venezuelan strongman. In her interview she never challenges him over the abuses of power that have made Chavez an object of concern for the Venezuelan people. The closest she comes is by asking this pampered question, “Venezuela elected you to a second term. They would have to amend the constitution for you to run for a third term. You want them to do that?”

These are not the words of an educated woman who would at least be vaguely aware of how Chavez has already changed his country’s Constitution for personal gain, packed the courts with his cronies and labored so hard to get these “reforms” passed that he declared the following warning to those who would vote against the Constitutional changes that he proposed… “He who says he supports Chavez but votes ‘no’ is a traitor, a true traitor.” Why is it that Conservatives are almost always exclusively labeled as divisive and suffering from an “Us Against Them” mentality when their leftwing opponents are so unapologetic in such sentiments?

Mostly Walters glowingly refers to Presidente Chavez as “dignified”, “warm” and suffering from “misconceptions” in the U.S. She took the approach of tough love and was sure to stroke the strongman’s ego by complimenting his character and asking biased questions like, “You are not married now. Are you -- Do you want to marry, or are you married to the revolution?” The interview with an eligible bachelor like Chavez obviously sparked Walters’ romantic notions about the “Revolution”.

After wrapping up the interview on 20/20 she expressed her true feelings in a statement that could have been written by a Commissar working at the PRAVDA news desk…

“…when you meet him, when you see him in the navy blue suit and not the red shirt that he’s in, um, he’s passionate about his dislike for George Bush. He does like this country and he’s passionate about his feelings about America. And he feels that with a new President, that we can be friends. He cares very much about poverty. He’s a Socialist. What he’s trying to do for all of Latin America, you know, they’ve been trying to do it for years, is to eliminate poverty. But this is not the crazy man that we have heard.”

Since Walters is so open in her admiration for Chavez it’s no surprise that she reacted sympathetically when the Venezuelan despot lost his recent bid to be president-for-life. As a comparison I find it just a wee bit ironic that she said the following about President Bush;

“He is the president, he is not a king.”

So while Walters glosses over major infractions against the freedoms of Venezuelans by Hugo Chavez (who has also consolidated a massive amount of political power into his presidency and political party) she accuses President Bush of being an autocrat simply because she was annoyed at the security in the capital of the United States, Washington D.C. Right across the water from the Pentagon which was attacked on 9/11.

We need a truly objective media, not this.