The anti-US Tour was such a bold move, I actually laughed out loud when I read that. I mean, come ON! Saddam????

Freakin' hilarious.

"Everything Was Forever, Until It Was No More: The Last Soviet Generation" by Alexei Yurchak.

Cuba is not just socialist -- it's Marxist-Leninist. The primary socialist role models of Fidel were Stalin and Lenin. Castro was against Glasnost, remember.

You cannot evolve Marxist-Leninist politicial discourse. That kind of political discourse is frozen in time forever.

Eventually people will tire of trying to inject new meanings into the same old tired Marxist-Leninist catch phrases they have to repeat over and over, every day, to prove their loyalty to the system.

That's when the system will start to change, and when that happens, Chavez won't be able to do much about it.

I would just like to point out that Ms. Starr mentions in the fourth paragraph that Mr. Chavez took refuge in Cuba after being ousted in a coup.

Starr writes: "On his return to power (he had, of course, taken refuge in Cuba), the Venezuelan stepped up his attacks against the U.S. president, whom he derides as "Mr. Danger."

According to previously published sources, this would appear to be incorrect. One account claims he requested to the generals who overthrew him that he and his family be granted exile in Cuba. Instead, following his "resignation," Chavez was taken to La Orchila, a military base off the coast of Venzeluela before being restored to power.

I just spent two weeks in Cuba, living in rented rooms, hanging out with the artist community in Santiago, Morris dancing in the Carnival parade (a blast).

My experience and this article don't match really well. Cuba and Cubans are very efficient at extracting tourist dollars. Given that and the demonstrated sloppiness with the facts, I think this article has some credibility problems.

For decades the Soviets kept the Cuban economy afloat by simply paying them quadruple the market price for their sugar crop. All this wonderful Disney Marxism came at the expense of their own economic collapse. What Chavez is doing is really no different - he's tapping his own economy to keep the Cuban economy afloat literally on a sea of oil. Of course right when Chavez leaves office in 2031 is when the oil will dry up and he will jet out with his personal fortune of billions to the south of France or Spain like all the other "Men of the People."

I think most writers in the US have ignored the news that Cuba sits between the oil rich area between Texas and Venezuela and that several countries are getting ready to dig for oil 25 miles from the Cuban shores. Although Chavez has indeed preppred up the Cuban economy, the international power equation will change if and when Cuba finds offshore oil. Cuba, too small and with limited natural resources, has always depended on a "big daddy", US., Russia and now Chavez, for its economic. Finding oil would not only liberalize its politics from other power brokers (Chavez, the US, etc.)but would truly change the political equation for the Island and increase the well being of its citizens.

Chavez is not a democratic president. He was elected with a discursive political speech, that turns out a full pledge to Fidel Castro ideas, after an elaborated pasage of the creation of a new constitution, fraudulent reelection outcomes, submital of all independent powers (National Assembly, Supreme Court, General Attorney, and many others). He is against private property as indicated in his XXI New Socialism Definition , and is an all Anti-american ( not only president Bush.) in every line of ideas, technology, art, and his only tolerance is to the american dollar ( he mention to change to euros, without knowing what is all about...). He sees himself as a reencarnation of Simon Bolivar, and a liberator of Latin America from what is mentioned Liberalismo salvaje or wild liberal economic practices. Chavez is building a militia with more than 300,000 Kalasnikov rifles, recently bought to Putin´s Russia. Censorship to media comes from severe IRS intervention, and pending trials to media owners and journalist. Promotes hate among venezuelans, either you are a patriot if you are with him, or a traitor if you are not. Whoever declares himself a chavista is granted an economic aid that ranges from US$ 140 to US$ 300 without having to work, only he needs to enroll in any of the many programs Chavez created : A High School degree in one year attendance without finals; a training program for small business coop ; farmers without land ; money lent trough the People´s Bank; eye surgery in Cuba at a cost of more than $100,000.00 each, compare to surgery made by local surgeons in private clinics at an average cost of $ 1,400.00 ( another way to send money to Cuba ); payments to cuban physicians without any proof of been such, mostly of them, technicians ( money the goes to the cuban embassy, and a left over to the residents-another way to send money to Cuba-); students at a newly created Universidad Bolivariana with full grants, mostly in social studies and journalism, without term grads, an university titles granted in a two year courses.

Oil and money and a lot of corrupted militars (Lukachenko,Hussein,Milosevic style), and Papa Fidel, is all that Chavez has.

I've been to Cuba many times. The people there are well educated, hard working and united. They love their country and their government. They have one of the best health care systems and education systems in the world. The U.S. could take a lesson.

Nice job of minimizing the Bush junta's and the neocons' roles in the 2002 coup, Ms. Starr. It's been conclusively proven that far from being innocent bystanders, the Bushistas backed the coup plotters to the hilt. Go for tip-of-the-iceberg evidence that took me

I really get a kick out of the right-wingers here clamoring to condemn Chavez for not being democratic enough, even as they cuddle up to such charmers like Musharraf and al-Maliki. After Florida in 2000 -- and Ohio in 2004 -- it's rather like listening to Hermann Goering accusing Winston Churchill of war crimes. The fact is that Chavez wrote a recall provision into Venezuela's constitution -- and his well-financed right-wing opponents, who control nearly all Venezuelan media, have already tried and failed to use the recall mechanism to oust him.

The big fear the righties have is that Chavez is using his country's oil wealth not just to help Cuba, but to free other Latin American nations like Argentina from the extortionate "aid" loans of the World Bank and other "helpful" entities -- and thus freeing them from being serfs to the multinational elites. Freed of the need to service the usurious World Bank debt, Argentina's people and economy are blossoming. And with India and China and Brazil helping Chavez tap his heavy-oil reserves -- reserves that by themselves could supply the world at current consumption rates for over a hundred years, even as the Middle Eastern reserves are drying up -- he's primed to topple the neocons' worldwide house of cards within the next decade.