"Latin America's Terrible Twos"

I was sitting in the library studying, when I saw a National Review Magazine (April 11, 2005) sitting on a table. On the picture it says "The Axis of Evil....Western Hemisphere version" with a picture of Castro and Chavez on the cover.

Intrigued I opened it up to read about it. I didn't know that the National Review was a super conservative magazine (if it isn't, this article certainly was). What it basically says is that Chavez gives the utmost support to Castro, both of whom are rabidly anti-American. With Chavez's planned military buildup and their ability to push their dangerous leftist Castroite influence to other regions of Latin America. Therefore since these two despotic evil leaders represent a threat and a hindrance on all peace-loving nations in the area, the US must step up and confront these problems else they pay the price later.

The article was more propaganda and inflammatory than it was factual or reasonable. The author, Otto J. Reich, skewed the facts and used cold war rhetoric to inspire fear and hatred towards Venezuela and Cuba more than anything else. I thought it was interesting that he claimed "In South America, a 'dirty war' of left-wing violence in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay had led to an equal and opposite reaction by right-wing military rigeimes. At the hands of both sides, untold thousands were murdered, tortured, or 'disappeard,' under horrible conditions whose consequences are with us to this day." That just isn't true. I don't think the left-wing violence doers had nearly the capacity of the military. Stuff like that just made this article a load of crap to read. I mean this writer is the paternalistic, xenophobic, sovereignty violating sort of guy that needs to take a Latin American Studies 101 course before he serves as the assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere.