Communism and Fascism Are One and the Same Thing

Communism and fascism are one and the same thing. Today more than ever, this truth is being made manifest in the despotic manner Hugo Chávez governs Venezuela. Recently, Chávez has unleashed his most furious attack against democracy and free speech in that country, emasculating the national parliament by assuming absolute power to rule by decree for 18 months while having previously pressured said legislative body into passing ironclad gag laws to control, censor, and manipulate not only TV, radio, and newspapers but also Internet (including Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks). Twenty-first-century socialist Chávez’s political tactics and strategies clearly bolster the idea that communism and fascism are veritable Siamese twins.
This concept is exposed in Pandemic of Lies: the Exile through a dialogue between Dr. Eduardo Borja, a former finance minister in the Alejandro Salvador government, and Manuel Cruz:
 “Well, what I mean by this is that Marxism and Fascism cojean dela misma pata. In other words, they hobble on the same bad leg.”
“What? How is that?” I said, shaking my head skeptically. “Aren’t they on diametrically opposite ends on the political spectrum?”
Dr. Eduardo Borja smiled condescendingly at me with the kind of sympathetic smile reserved for a confused student. “It depends on how you draw the political spectrum.”
“Explain,” I demanded.
“We normally see the political spectrum in rectilinear form, Fascism at the extreme end to the right and Communism or Socialism at the extreme end to the left. But what if the political spectrum is perceived in a different way, for example, in curvilinear fashion?”
He paused, took a pen out of his shirt’s pocket, and drew first a line on a paper napkin and then a circle.
“With the rectilinear format,” he said, pointing at the drawn line, “Marxism and Fascism are indeed at opposite ends, but if you curve the line and finish turning it into a circle, the extreme ends join each other, melt, and become one.” To make his case even more graphic, he now rolled the napkin into the form of a cigar and then bent it until the tips touched each other. “There!” he cried victoriously. “Marxism and Fascism are really one and the same political phenomenon. The same dog, different collar. Same shit, different smell.”
“Birds of the same feather,” I contributed.
He laughed appreciatively.
“But have you got enough supporting evidence to prove this theory?”
“It’s not a theory. It’s a fact,” he corrected contentiously. “In truth, it’s not an original idea of mine. I will be the first Latin American political economist, though, to expose it in this century, and I think it’s about time somebody did.”
“But the evidence, the proof?” I insisted.
“Hold your horses. I’m coming to that. Who do you think was the first fascist leader in the twentieth century?”
“I don’t know,” I said impatiently, feeling he was subjecting me to a question-and-answer classroom situation. “Benito Mussolini, I guess.”
The learned doctor pursed his lips. “Wrong,” he growled, as if he were about to condemn me to after-school detention for having given the wrong answer.
“Who then?” I demanded.
“Lenin. Or Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov, to be more precise. He changed his name to Lenin in 1901. You see, even back then he was already preparing himself for the initiation of a cult of personality around himself. With a name like Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov he would have never gotten anywhere, don’t you think? But a charismatic leader could proudly bear a name like Lenin. Such a name sticks favorably to the memory cells. It’s short and sonorous.”
Dr. Borja paused to recharge himself with another deep sip from his drink.
“Now, what are some of the characteristics linked to Fascism? For one, the emergence of a charismatic leader, right? And later the creation of a whole aura of invincibility, courage, patriotism, and even godliness around the leader—what’s called a cult of personality, correct? Communist or socialist principles are supposed to be based on the dictatorship of the proletariat, and yet throughout history, we see that what prevailed in communist countries time and time again was, not the dictatorship of the proletariat, but the absolute rule of one man, the charismatic leader—a Fascist trait. Examples of Hitler and Mussolini types in this sense abound in socialist or communist settings: Lenin, Stalin, Mao, Kim Il-sung and later his son Kim Jongil, Fidel Castro and then his brother Raúl Castro—scratch Raúl out; he’s about as charismatic as pubic lice—and now, heading down the dictatorship lane by leaps and bounds, Hugo Chávez. Then there are the pups Hugo is grooming in his Fascist Dictatorship University: Daniel Ortega, Evo Morales, Rafael Correa, and, oh, oh, surprise, surprise, Alejandro Salvador. Lacaya registered at Hugo’s school but recently flunked out, thanks to Hillary.”
“Alright, alright, I catch your drift,” I chuckled. “But there must be more similarities between the two political tendencies,” I said, getting enthused with the direction the exposition was taking.
“Fervent nationalism is another element that typifies Fascism. Communism and socialism supposedly have an internationalist focus, and yet already in 1924 Stalin was promoting the concept of Socialism in One Country, which later became the basis for the Soviet Union’s imperialist doctrine. Take something very close to home as far as you’re concerned: Cuba. The main slogan there is: Patria o muerte, venceremos. Fatherland or death, we shall triumph. Hugo Chávez has adopted this jingoist war cry with a slight variation: Patria, socialismo o muerte. Fatherland, socialism or death. And Evo Morales promises that he will soon make the Cuban slogan Patria o muerte, venceremos the rallying cry of the Bolivian Armed Forces. Can you get more chauvinistic than that?”
I grinned and nodded my head. His comments, it seemed to me, were all bull’s-eyes.
“Another practice that distinguishes Fascism is its racism. Mussolini promoted the Italic race, Hitler the Aryan race, above all other races. Hitler, in particular, hated Jews. Recently, historians have started discovering Stalin’s pathological anti-Semitism. And now the Latin American would-be dictators are showing their anti-Semitic colors as well. Look at Hugo Chávez. He’s become real chummy with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who denies the Holocaust by calling it a ‘myth’. And at the same time Hugo is forcing his political toadies like Evo Morales, Rafael Correa, Daniel Ortega, and Alejandro Salvador to get their respective countries politically and economically aligned with Iran, the world’s epicenter of anti-Semitism. And as the saying goes: Dime con quién andas y te diré quién eres. Your pals reflect who you are; it’s as simple as that.”

Cuba, Hugo Chávez, Fidel Castro, and Alejandro Salvador in Pandemic of Lies: the Exile

There are a lot of references to Cuba in your novel Pandemic of Lies: the Exile. What’s the motivation for this?
Well, I was born in Cuba and lived there until the age of ten.
When exactly did you leave the island?
On December 12^th, 1961—an unforgettable day for me. I was ten years old. The event marked a “before and after” in my life.
How so?
If I had stayed in Cuba, my life thereafter would have been radically different. By leaving, I eventually became a “citizen of the world”—what I essentially consider myself today. At any rate, I think that’s better than seeing oneself as “an eternal exile”. Perhaps that’s why I created in Pandemic of Lies: the Exile a country by the name of Banador, which doesn’t exist anywhere on a real map.
How do you see Cuba now almost fifty years after you left it?
As an earthly hell, the product of a totalitarian communist/fascist system which now seems to be on its last legs. Many Cubans, living inside and outside the island, are eagerly waiting for the expected crash to happen. I just hope it’s not accompanied by bloodshed.
Is life that bad in Cuba?
Actually, I think it’s much worse than most people imagine. That’s why so many Cubans from the island have risked and continue to risk their lives crossing a shark-infested sea to reach Floridian shores. In Miami I once met a Cuban  young man who had had lost both legs on account of the severe dehydration he had suffered on his sea journey to freedom on a makeshift raft. During the horrific trip, he had drunk salt water excessively and that had made things worse for him. Despite the loss of his limbs, he wouldn’t hesitate to do it all over again, he had assured me, if he were ever again in the same situation of living in a freedom-starved country, and he would repeat his feat even with the foreknowledge of the terrible physical consequences he’d have to pay.
Yet people like Michael Moore praise the Cuban government, in particular, the healthcare system?
Well, if the Cuban healthcare system were that good, why was Fidel Castro secretly smuggled out of Cuba and flown to a ritzy Madrid clinic on the same plane on which a Spanish surgeon jetted to Cuba to treat him? Of course, this event was never reported in Cuba or on the front pages of any of the major newspapers around the world. But it’s a fact. Otherwise, Fidel Castro would be long gone and dead today.
In essence, Cuba’s medical advances have been greatly overrated. Nonetheless, the Cuban government has never lost a minute to use medicine as a propaganda tool in favor of its communist/fascist system. It’s true the government doesn’t charge tuition for medical school, but potential medical students must show a passionate adherence to Fidel Castro’s irrational ideology; otherwise, they are denied entrance. After graduation, many of the medical doctors are sent abroad in a sort of twentieth-first-century slave trade pact under which the foreign country pays the Cuban government directly for the services of these Cuban doctors while the doctors receive a mere pittance from the revenues the Castro brothers rake in from the work these modern slaves perform away from home. To make sure these doctors don’t defect, the Cuban government retains key members of their family as “hostages” back on the island.
Are you saying that the Cuban government is a master of deceit?
That’s exactly what it excels at: deceiving people, especially gullible people or individuals who have a hidden agenda, like Michael Moore or Maradona, and simply pretend to be deceived. The well-intentioned foreign visitors are bamboozled by the Cuban government because they are never taken, for example, to the shabby authentic hospitals where the common people of Cuba are forced to go for treatment. That’s why it’s vital to unmask the Castro brothers as often as possible through books such as Pandemic of Lies: the Exile. This pair of fraternal hoodlums continues to be a serious danger to humanity. Remember that during the October Missile Crisis Fidel Castro urged the Soviet Union to launch a nuclear missile attack on the U.S. That would have been the beginning of a Nuclear Holocaust and the end of mankind as we know it. The unfortunate thing is that most people have a reduced memory span. Now Fidel is encouraging Hugo Chávez to arm Venezuela to its teeth by means of the country’s vast amount of petrodollars. Again the peace of the American continent is being threatened by the old bearded tyrant, this time by means of a Venezuelan puppet of his.
So you see Fidel Castro as a puppet master?
During practically all of his life, he’s had as his main marionette his brother Raúl, who venerates him as if he were some sort of God. He had difficulties with Ernesto “Che” Guevara, who had the same problem with Fidel as Karl Marx with Simón Bolívar. Both Guevara and Marx disliked leaders who were distinctly authoritarian and despotic and promoted a personality cult for the benefit of the caudillo. So Fidel pushed Guevara out and sent him on a suicidal mission that proved to have more propagandistic potential than his having remained on the island. His “Christ-like” death helped to inject the Cuban “Socialist” Revolution with a strong mystical, religious element. Thus, the independent-minded Che Guevara ended up being used unwittingly as a puppet by his boss Fidel. Particularly after his death, Guevara was squeezed for his advertisement value and utilized as a global marketing tool for the “cult” of socialism. Fidel lived on and endured as well as his communist/fascist government, but Guevara died and went on to become a revolutionary saint, continuously going through frequent hagiographic metamorphoses according to the needs of Castro’s Revolution.
On the other hand, Hugo Chávez adores Fidel like Raúl; only Hugo goes even further than Fidel’s brother and considers the Cuban dictator his “spiritual father”, his ecstatic reverence for the bearded caudillo verging on territory laden with homoerotic implications. What makes very special and at the same very dangerous this relationship between the younger man and the older one is the fact Hugo has a tight grip on oil—and lots of it. In fact, without the handsome oil subsidies that rain on Cuba like manna from a miraculous Venezuelan cloud, Cuba would have gone bankrupt several years back. Venezuelan oil is the only thing that keeps Cuba afloat nowadays, because, as Fidel himself has admitted, the present economic system in Cuba simply doesn’t work. I would go even further and add that it’s a disaster and nears a cataclysmic collapse. And just today, coincidentally, appeared the news of Raúl Castro’s apocalyptic speech before the Cuban “parliament”, where he said: “Either we rectify our errors, or time will run out on us at the edge of the precipice.” Can the message be any clearer?
Whose model does President Alejandro Salvador follow in your novel Pandemic of Lies: the Exile? Hugo’s or Fidel’s?
He follows both, but the orders come mostly from Chávez, because, you see, there’s a pecking order in this Dictatorship, Inc. While Fidel is Hugo’s boss, Hugo is Salvador’s. Furthermore, Chávez has got the oil and with it he can bribe and buy consciences, including North American ones. Here I’m referring to all those U.S. Hollywood celebrities who go to Venezuela to pay homage to Emperor Hugo. Chávez is also involved in drug trafficking, and that means a quick buck and abundant cash to blow away in promoting his brand of Bolivarian Revolution, which, as one of the characters points out in my novel, is clearly of the fascist type.

Part II of Interview with Pedro C. López, author of Pandemic of Lies: the Exile

Could you tell us how the idea of Banador came to you in the writing of Pandemic of Lies: the Exile?
During my sixteen years of living in South America, I’ve had the chance to visit several South American countries. These include Colombia, Peru, Chile, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. There was one year during which, on account of a national rice surplus which was driving prices in a precipitously downward direction in Ecuador and had to be evacuated in a massive exportation effort on the double, I made six consecutive trips to Colombia in representation of the Ecuadorian rice sector. On another occasion I had to spend two months in Brazil in order to solve a commercial problem suffered by my Ecuadorian relatives at the hands of a couple of dishonest Brazilian citizens. Besides all these trips taken around South America, since 1994 I’ve been living continuously in Ecuador. Thus, modesty aside, I think I had a good grasp on what was happening south of the Border when I started composing Pandemic of Lies. So to get back to your initial question, I would say Banador is a composite picture of all my experiences in various countries in South America. That’s why I decided to create a mythical nation and to call it Banador. In short, Banador is ubiquitous.
Could you give us some concrete details about Banador?
Banador is not really a poor country, but most of its citizens consider themselves poor. The poor Banadorians blame their poverty on a) the native oligarchs, b) the United States, or c) fate. The Banadorian radicals, mostly or almost exclusively from the left wing of the political spectrum, tend to lash out at both the rich Banadorians and the United States for the socio-economic situation of their country. They see native wealth and American interests conspiring together behind the scenes to maintain the status quo and keep the people below in check. On the other hand, the least educated of the needy people hardly ever chastise the U.S. for their situation but frequently do express their resentment against their bosses or the owners of the companies they work for—if they are so lucky as to have a job. Fate receives most of the finger-pointing and blame from most sectors. With this respect, though, the one common thing all Banadorians share is that they never blame themselves for their seemingly endless plight.
As I stated at the beginning, Banador is not poor. In fact, it’s actually a rich country—rich in oil, gas, minerals, water, and land resources. What’s dearly lacking is the courage and sincerity on the part of its citizens, with very few exceptions, to face the issues without the use of scapegoats.
Is this why so many Banadorians are poor?
Precisely. Banadorians are always projecting out their guilt and responsibility. The wealthy and successful members of Banadorian society call the poor people lazy, and the poor call the wealthy citizens exploiters. That kind of tense argument never allows for consensus, harmony, and progress. However, it does create a fertile ground for demagogues, who use the seeds of popular resentment to plant the Banadorian political fields with hatred and chaos, from which they will eventually reap major benefits, but primarily for themselves and their sycophants. Populism, authoritarianism, and corruption plague the political scenery in Banador. Under the constant attacks of such pests, it is almost impossible for Banador ever to reach the status of a developed nation.
Is there racism in Banador?
There’s definitely plenty of that. Indeed, Banador is far from being a racial paradise. Nonetheless, racial tensions seem to irradiate mostly from the top of the economic pyramid toward the base. As you climb the economic ladder, you immediately perceive that the skin tone of people lightens up. Eventually, you reach an apex where the faces you perceive don’t differ much from those you might encounter in Europe. The demagogic populist politicians utilize this situation to instill even more hatred into the darker-skinned classes toward the dominant economic groups and to perpetuate a class struggle that leads only to more political chaos and instability. While by blood, sweat, and tears, the Banadorian nation now and again might accomplish taking two steps forward, the opportunistic politicians, with one simple push and in a flash, make the whole country recede three steps. They do this by pouring gasoline into an already existent fire that cries out for justice and equality. What these corrupt politicians don’t tell the people is that such lofty goals are best attained through evolutionary and not revolutionary processes. More importantly, these Machiavellian scoundrels avoid informing the nation that globalization is irreversible, that everybody out there around the globe is watching Banador, and that nobody will want to come to and invest in Banador if the country’s social, political, and economic state of things has fallen into an uncontrollable spin and, in particular, if, because of this turbulence, there even looms the possibility of the Balkanization of the Banadorian nation state.
Are you referring to regionalist forces?
Exactly. In Banador there are basically two regions: mountain and coast. The Banadorians who live in mountainous areas are called serranos, a word that comes from the Spanish word sierra, which in English means “mountain range”. Those who reside in the coastal region are addressed as costeños, whose etymological root is costa, equivalent to “coast” in English. Although both groups consider themselves Banadorian through and through, the serranos and the costeños have different customs. For example, the serranos love bull-fighting, while the costeños love horse-riding events. With respect to the subject of cuisine, while the serranos include in their menu practically every part of the cow, including the innards, the costeños’ culinary preferences gravitate toward seafood. The serranos use a good number of Kichwa words because they have mixed Spanish and indigenous (of Incan origin) blood, with the exception of the economic elite. The costeños have Spanish, African, and indigenous (of non-Incan origin) ancestors. These cultural and racial differences between the two groups engender animosity, which is especially evident at soccer games, where gross insults and offensive names are traded between serranos and costeños as they root for their favorite teams from their home areas. This long-standing enmity between sierra and costa becomes another trouble spot which demagogic politicians exploit to their advantage, further dividing the Banadorian nation.
So what’s one possible solution to all these Banadorian problems?
The solution is the same for Banador as for any Latin American country just about, I think. Cooperation, consensus, harmonized thinking, meeting of minds, less navel-staring and more peering into the future, less ideology and more creativity, fewer words and more action, and, last but not least, the creation of a common national goal that’s at the same time pro-progress and pro-freedom.

“Chávez” Synonymous of an Insult—Excerpt from Pandemic of Lies: The Exile

There will be worldwide demonstrations today against Chávez’s systematic demolition of democracy and basic human liberties such as freedom of speech, freedom of expression, and freedom of the press in Venezuela. Furthermore, in the European Parliament the term Chávez was recently used as an insult hurled at a prime minister. “You are on the path of becoming a European Chavez,” said Green leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is accused of being a populist demagogue and trying to subvert democracy and freedom in Hungary.  In Pandemic of Lies: The Exile, Hugo Chávez’s intentions of becoming a lifetime Dictator of Venezuela and of fomenting similarly styled dictatorships in neighboring Latin American countries were clearly and poignantly predicted. Says Enrique Kurtz, one of the characters in the novel:
All these sons of bitches use the same technique. They call for a plebiscite to vote on the question of whether una Asamblea Constituyente or a Constituent Assembly should be established in the country. In this Assembly, laws are created to transfer control of two of the three supreme powers of the state, the Legislative and Judicial, to the first one, the Executive. This destroys the last shreds of a system of checks and balances and allows for the tacit establishment of a dictatorship by the Executive Branch. Furthermore, a law is also embedded into the new Constitution to allow for the reelection of the President just once (which is later modified through another plebiscite into the perennial reelection of the First Executive a la Hugo Chávez), thus establishing a de facto Constitutional Dictatorship with a President for Life. These gentlemen will continue to win one election after the other with impressive numbers for two reasons: a) liberal and unrestrained government handouts to as many citizens as possible following an astute populist credo and b) the use of perfected computer election software (patented in Venezuela) that reverses the voting results in a magical way at the touch of a secret key in the event the “President for life” starts to become unpopular and unwanted. In layman’s terms, Hugo Chávez Frías has started up a Company called Dictatorship, Inc., with himself as President/CEO of said enterprise, whose chief goal is to destabilize as many Latin American countries as possible through populist and terrorist tactics and bring them into his zone of influence and eventual control. Ironically enough, Democracy is his best ally at the beginning of the Project. But once he and his puppets—like Daniel Ortega, Evo Morales, Rafael Correa, that promiscuous former Catholic bishop-turned-President Fernando Lugo (who has admitted to fathering a child while he was still bishop and now has a whole bunch of poor Paraguayan women lining up in front of the civil courts of that country with paternity suits against the bearded horny goat, including one young female who claims she was raped by the satyr inside the church rectory when she was a mere teenager), Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and her husband Néstor Kirchner (who have perfected the art of rotating presidential terms between each other in a matrimonial adaptation of the original President for Life in a leapfrog format) and, lastly but not least, Alejandro Salvador—have achieved the Presidency of their respective countries, they systematically set about to dismantle national democratic structures as well as to silence the press through Leyes de Mordaza or Gag Laws and decapitate the leadership of the Armed Forces, accumulating all the powers of the state and outside it in the hands of the “elected” President (who is nothing but a de facto wolfish Dictator in sheep’s clothing), until a Franchise of Hugo the Boss’ Dictatorship Inc. (in the countries subdued outside Main Headquarters Venezuela, of course) is consolidated, with the non-Venezuelan Presidents assuming the roles of Vice-Presidents or Vice-Chairmen depending on their fervor for the Project secretly called Fascist Dictatorship of the Twentieth-first Century, which Hugo Chavez has masterfully disguised as Socialismo del Siglo Veintiuno or Socialism of the Twenty-first Century.

“NO to going into exile”, an Excerpt from Pandemic of Lies: The Exile

When a nascent totalitarian communist-fascist regime lifts up its head, such as the one in Chávez’s Venezuela, the one thing one should never do, the Cuban-American Manuel Cruz emphatically suggests in Pandemic of Lies: The Exile, is to abandon the country:
 “Not really,” I grinned, “but if it’ll make you feel better, I’ll finish the sentence: we don’t want to have another Operation Peter Pan occur here in Banador. That would be a terrible thing. It’s good for the Banadorian people to get angry at their government, but it’s bad for them to start feeling resigned. And it’s terrible, even disastrous, if they start thinking about leaving the country and becoming political exiles somewhere. You’ve got to stay here and fight,” I said emphatically, returning unavoidably to the “you” again. “Don’t make the mistake my parents’ generation committed when they saw in emigrating to the United States and other free countries the solution to their problem and that of Cuba. It didn’t work. It didn’t work at all. It was catastrophic, tragic. Look at how many years the Castro brothers have remained in power. They’ve set records in that department, haven’t they? That’s because all the dissidents and thinking people and entrepreneurs left the island, with the mindset that the last to leave should turn out the light in case the Castro brothers forgot to. So we’ve got to stay,” I exhorted, returning to the “we”. “Yes to staying on our turf. Yes to an all-out War against the new Totalitarian Beast that has been hatched in Banador and is preparing its merciless assault, with the help of his Communist Big Brothers, Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez, on the democratic institutions of this country and its most fundamental liberties. And a definite and emphatic NO to going into exile. The battle has to be waged from the trenches inside Banador, not from Brickell Avenue in Miami.”