Three Who are Making a Revolution--Chevez, Morales and Fidel

Three who made a Marxist revolution in Russia were Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky. The first two died with their boots off. Trotsky was murdered by an assassin sinking an ice ax into his head in Mexico. Their revolution caused the eventual destruction of Imperial Russia that took over two centuries of Czars to build, relentlessly with blood and iron. Though the Russian Marxist dream fell from its own torpid weight in about six decades, it left a legacy. A legacy which continues to bedevil the US.

Three countries have emerged that have adopted the Russian revolution as a guide to action. Castro Cuba, Chavez Venezuela, and most recently, Morales Bolivia. All three are anti-American and seek to expand their trio with other Latin American states. Their candidates for membership are rapidly expanding with leftist regimes in Brazil. Uruguay, Argentina and most recently, Chile.

Mexico's Fox is not a member of the leftist club, but he absolutely delights it with his velvet invasion of the US by flooding the US with illegal aliens. . . So far the estimates of these exceed 12 million. This unregulated influx will develop into an internal security problem for the US. Illegal aliens already fill US prisons disproportionately for crime committed in the US.

Latino attraction to the authoritarian Leninist Marxist model as opposed to the leftist Social Democratic approach to rule, found in economically developed Europe is based on how economic and political power is applied in their underdeveloped countries... Once Marxist Leninists have control, either by revolution or the ballot box, they reorganize the police and army and develop new internal security apparatus. The press is gradually brought under regime control. Sometimes there is arbitrary land redistribution. Nationalization of key industries, in most cases, without compensation to previous owners is always part of the formula. Social structure is usually inverted with the former oppressed becoming the new oppressors These regimes usually fall either through their inefficiency, lack of talent or by counterrevolution--seldom through the ballot box.

Castro is the leader in the new Marxist trio. Most in the world are astonished how he has survived in power... especially with US political and economic antagonism. Many even believe he was involved in the conspiracy that killed President JF Kennedy--President Lyndon Johnson believed this until his death.

JFK inadvertently helped Castro make him what he is today. Despite apologists for Kennedy, his Bay of Pigs invasion flop and the subsequent missile crisis cemented Castro's power. JFK moved US missiles from Turkey targeted on the USSR and pledged to the Russians not to invade Cuba, if Khruschev would move his ICBMs out of Cuba. There was not much left of the Monroe Doctrine when JFK came along. He most certainly presided over its burial by permitting the continued Soviet penetration of Cuba..

Castro won his bones as a Marxist leader. He foiled internal dissent and counterrevolution elements by encouraging emigration to the US by plane and boat loads, or ruthlessly killed and imprisoned his opponents. He reorganized his economics through nationalization and created new leadership cadres from the underdogs. He fought for the Soviet Union in the Angolian war of national liberation and was active in other areas of Africa and in Latin countries. He was supported by massive Soviet aid. When this ended, he rebuilt his economy by attracting Canadian and European investments. He now is very cozy with Red China in trade and there are rumors the Chinese have taken over the old Russian communication intercept site at Santa Maria on the edge of Havana,

Until Chavez came along Castro's role among the Latin American countries was moribund. His initial success in Nicaragua with the Sandinistas was crushed by the Reagan administration as was Castro's power play in Grenada.

When Chavez won an election in Venezuela, he turned to Castro for brain power. And Castro jumped at the chance with alacrity, Chavez has turned bitterly anti-American. The same now has happened in Bolivia with the election of Morales. In power little over a month, Morales has stopped US-sponsored eradication of cocoa crops. He said cocoa is okay but cocaine is not! Large national gas reserves in Bolivia surely will be a target for nationalization

Castro, always nettlesome for the US, has taken on a new threat proportion as his influence grows with Chavez and Morales--.Castro just had sugar, cigars, rum and very pretty women as resources, Now with Chavez and Morales as clients, he has oil and natural gas, both important to US energy requirements, that he can influence.

China, a Communist country, now based on the shoulders of the Panama Canal, is providing an economic shield for the trio. If military support is needed, bet on China coming to their aid

Jozef Stalin is the hero of the three who are making a revolution. He is credited with winning the war against Hitler and the industrialization of Russia. He ruthlessly brought order to Russia, built gulags and deported whole nationalities to Russian Asia.. He killed millions during collectivization. He was by any standard a monster. Despite this, today 56 per cent of the Russians agree that Stalin may have made some mistakes, but did more good than bad.

As the trio's troika is pulled around Latin America spiritually by Stalin, materially by the Red Chinese, and by the energy of the dissatisfied Latino masses, you have to wonder what GW Bush is doing about all this--very little--his administration cannot even go quail hunting without screwing it up. Robert E Bartos Colonel USA Ret