Speaking The Truth To Power

The top Catholic official in communist-occupied Venezuela has possibly taken his first courageous step toward eventual martyrdom.

Venezuela's highest Catholic prelate has called President Hugo Chavez a dictator and urged Venezuelans to refuse to recognize him as the nation's leader.

"I am convinced that what we have here is a dictatorship," Cardinal Rosalio Castillo said in an interview....

He said the people of his nation should refuse to recognize the left-wing president because he was not ruling democratically, citing an article in Venezuela's constitution stipulating that citizens could reject a leader if he violated democratic principles or human rights.

"Reject this government," the cardinal declared, charging that Chavez "has seized control of all the branches of government." He said Chavez maintained a "varnish of
democracy" but had assumed dictatorial powers.

"His goal above all is not to help the poor but to concentrate his power," Cardinal Castillo said, adding that Chavez was trying to install Cuban-style communism in
the country.

And - whaddaya know - it looks like Cardinal Castillo is right:

Chavez, who calls himself the "second Fidel," has outlawed most forms of public protest, rewritten Venezuela's constitution to broaden his powers, purged critics in the military and tried to take over the national federation of trade unions.

He also engineered a law allowing his government to suspend the licenses of radio and TV stations for content "contrary to the security of the nation," and has even set up his own Latin American satellite channel to rival what he calls the U.S. propaganda that can now be seen on satellite TV.

Chavez' retort had an interesting bit of historical irony:

At a live state television broadcast, waving a copy of Castillo's newspaper interview, Chavez angrily retorted the church leader, saying "He has the devil inside him ... (he's an) immoral bandit and coup-mongerer".

"He has the devil inside him"? Hmmm; didn't the scribes and Pharisees say something similar to Jesus Christ?

If Castro's mini-me thinks he was being clever with that verbal banana peel, I'd advise him to start going back to Sunday School and, to borrow another well-known phrase, "Let his people go."

I mean, really, Jimmy Carter is a far better fit as Caiaphas the High Priest; ol' Hugo seems a born Barrabas....