“Nowhere was this cult more apparent and abundant than in the armed forces who were taught to consider themselves the heirs of the Libertador.” (Bolivar’s Endiosamiento)

If you were to visit the tombs of past Venezuelan dictators, all anti-Communist men, kneel and put your ear to the ground. You will hear their spinning.

Their hagiography of Bolivar was used by men such as Douglas Bravo to enable the infiltration of the Venezuelan armed forces with men committed to the Bolivar mystique, under which they indoctrinated and recruited men who would readily obey orders to impose a Communist dictatorship.

Douglas Bravo understood the veneration that Venezuelans had for Bolivar. He used the image of Bolivar as a lure. He knew that the meaning of “Bolivarianism”, as preached and indoctrinated by infiltrators like Chávez, meant, to the minds of the soldiers, nationalism and anti-imperialism. And, importantly, the anti-imperialism was focused on the United States and the United States alone.

As “Bolivarianism” continued to be inculcated in the Armed Forces, it denied it had anything to do with Marxist theory and that it was only a description of the Libertador‘s dream of a united South America, free of the clutches of the dreaded yanquis, and focused on the prosperity and freedoms of the Venezuelan peoples.

So, Bravo and his acolytes acted like offended damsels whenever anyone asserted that their preaching sounded Marxist or Communist. Their usual riposte was that they were nationalists, meaning that they rejected all internationalism — which, of course, meant that they rejected Communist internationalism. 

Which of course was a lie.

As a child, I would hear — remember, this was a time of children-can-be-seen-but-not-heard — adults express concerns about university student diatribes against the United States while loudly professing their love for Venezuela. To these adults, something sounded off key in the protestations. It was all-too-clear that the supposed love for Venezuela was drowned by their hatred towards the United States.

Why the hatred?

When asked one on one, the rioters would deny they hated Americans; however, at the mitínes (rallies), the hatred was palpable. Why?

The facile answers taught by American college professors and other usual suspects, did not hold water: Monroe Doctrine backlash, imperialist America, uninvited American missionary activities, Ugly American tourists, and more.

When I was about 13 or 14 a childhood friend visited the United States for the first time, accompanying her family on a long-expected vacation. On her return, she reported to us how she purposefully dropped trash in American parks and “I was not arrested, and no policeman saw me”. 

What causes someone to hate another country so much that upon her first visit to said country — a country she had never travelled to before — she would throw trash and brag about getting away with it?

“Monroe Doctrine” backlash doesn’t cut it.

After the riots and violent attacks on Vice President Richard Nixon and his wife in 1958 (see Nixon), the United States National Security Council’s minutes recorded comments by John Foster Dulles:

“Secretary Dulles went on to say that there was one more very important factor in the Latin American problem which the United States faced. This was the collapse of religion generally in Latin America. We all believe in this country that religion, with its emphasis on the rights and freedoms of the individual under God, is the very core of our democratic system and that it is also the greatest bulwark against atheistic communism. Unhappily … organized religion had practically no influence on the mass of the people as opposed to the aristocracy. Admittedly, said Secretary Dulles, he did not know what we could do about correcting this very grave situation, but it was certainly at the heart of our problem in Latin America.“

I doubt anyone can imagine a member of today’s National Security Council, or any major college faculty lounge or school board, expressing thoughts remotely similar to those of Secretary Dulles. Even back in the 50s it was becoming somewhat rare albeit not surprising.

And that, in my opinion, helps explain the hatred.

The United States has long been identified with Christianity. Such identification is offensive, even to many Christians today. It may have been abused by some, but it cannot be honestly denied. From Alexis de Tocqueville in the 19th century and his marvel at the faithful church attendance of Americans and their reliance on their faith, themselves, and volunteer organizations, as opposed to reliance on the State, to an executive from Argentina, whom I had the privilege of entertaining when he visited Texas in the mid 90s, and hearing him express wonderment at seeing “so many churches! Practically one on every corner!”, the Christian influence on the United States is undeniable. 

This is not to say that such Christianity has been watered down if not fully apostatized, but it is to say that our history has been greatly impacted by such, and such influence is readily discernible should one decide to look at primary sources — Mayflower Compact, Bradford’s journal, the constitutions of the 13 colonies, sermons from America’s founding era, letters and speeches by America’s founders, missionary activity, and more.

The maniacal, bitter hatred that Communism has against Christianity is real. This is blatantly reflected in The Communist Manifesto which frontally, unabashedly, and bitterly attacks the Christian faith: “Communism abolishes eternal truths, it abolishes all religion and all morality, instead of constituting them on a new basis; it therefore acts in contradiction to all past historical experience.“

And so, Douglas Bravo infiltrated the Venezuelan armed forces with Communists (others did the same with the universities) but ordered them to never mention Communism, only “nationalism and hatred of the yanquis“. The hatred of the yanquis was said to be because of their imperialism, but upon closer examination it was a proxy for Christianity. 

(The identification of the United States with Christianity does not at all mean that my position is that America is a “Christian nation” or that we are the chosen people. Those are straw men about which too much ink has been needlessly spilled while we continue down our road of denying our history and embracing those who genuinely hate us and mean us ill.)

The rise of Chávez was not an overnight thing. Other Communist infiltrators in key positions enabled him to be promoted despite pedestrian academic achievements and even betrayals resulting in deaths of Venezuelan soldiers. The rise was long term, methodical, and successful. 

We will be writing more about this.