Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez now rivals Fidel Castro as the Western
Hemisphere's most visible symbol of anti-Americanism, which explains why
"peace activist" Cindy Sheehan is climbing abroad the Venezuelan
firebrand's bus. She has announced plans to attend the World Social Forum
in Caracas, which kicks off today and will celebrate, among other things,
Chavez's Bolivarian Revolution.
The annual "forum," which began in Brazil in 2001 as an
anti-globalization conference, is also sometimes referred to as the
"carnival of the oppresed." Like most events of its kind, it has become
flypaper for the planet's kookiest activists, including many who still
espouse the "armed struggle" against capitalism, the "North," whatever.
Perhaps the grieving Ms. Sheehan, an avowed peace lover, has been so busy
with the makeup artists and the cameras to pay attention to the
violence-prone types she's now embracing. But the name of one of the
forum's organizers -- Ernesto "Che" Mercado -- could have given the
anti-Bush publicity hound a hint. A Latin American revolutionary who
takes the moniker of a legendary Cuban executioner is hardly a follower
of Gandhi.
Indeed, the Sheehan tour to Caracas belongs in the "you-can't-make-it-up"
category: A bitterly outspoken American citizen who has made a career of
lambasting her president, she travels abroad to celebrate with a dictator
who has thrown his own critics out of work and even put them in prison,
stripped the pres of its freedom, destroyed property rights and
militarized the government. His political supporters are known to be
armed and dangerous and many Venezuelans in poor neighborhoods have
reported that they are afraid to disent from the Chavez agenda.
Venezuela's arms build-up is frightening his neighbors and threatening
regional stability.
We're glad Ms. Sheehan has the freedom to travel abroad. Many of Chavez's
critics are denied that right, as are the critics of Castro. But she
shouldn't wonder why, when she opens her mouth in the U.S., nobody takes
her seriously.
-- Mary Anastasia O'Grady
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