Raping the soul of a child

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic NewsPosted: Wednesday, April 23, 2003 By: Gustavo Coronel

VHeadline.com commentarist Gustavo Coronel writes: From the Hitler Jugend (Hitler Youth) to the Asbal Saddam (Saddam Lions Cubs) and the Pioneros de la Revolucion Cubana (Pioneers of the Cuban Revolution). From Iran to Mao's China to militarized North Korea, all totalitarian States have raped the souls of their children to train them for military work, to spy on their own parents or, simply, to become robot-like followers of the tyrant.

Ideological indoctrination of children is the trade mark of dictatorships all over the world and over history.  In Cuba the slogan of the Communist Youth Union, the only organization of its type allowed to exist, is: Estudio, Trabajo, Fusil...... Study, Work and Rifle. (two out of three is not that bad).

Rolando Borges, one of the chief ideologues of the Cuban Revolution, has said: "The front line of political and ideological work with children is the school and the first soldiers are the teachers..."  Surprisingly, says journalist Damaris Ocana, "two sets of morality have developed."  Many Cuban children make their "teachers" believe that they follow their guidelines while in fact keeping faithful to their family values.

In Iraq, thousands of children between 10 and 18 years old were trained as child soldiers ... the training included some 14 hours a day of military activity and ideological indoctrination. Much of the training was violent, killing animals and beatings of children who did not "cut the mustard."

Only in Baghdad, there were over 10,000 of these child soldiers, trained to act as small scale ambushers, snipers and mini-terrorists. Fortunately, the sudden collapse of the regime prevented these children from killing or being killed.

In Mao's China children were not only politically indoctrinated but many served to Mao as sexual toys. Mao preferred children and adolescents of both sexes as partners. In Nazi Germany, children brought flowers to Hitler and, in payment, Hitler sent them to death by the thousands during the last weeks of the war.

In 1970, Cuba passed a 'Code of the Child' which stipulates that children will be educated within Marxist-Leninist guidelines and that all efforts will be made to "protect" them against anti-communist influences.

Cuba has been sending Venezuela ome indoctrinated children every time that Chavez organizes an event to celebrate the "revolution."  These children come to us to praise both the Cuban and the Venezuelan "revolutions."  They talk mechanically, like pre-programmed robots, about how happy Cubans are ... how nice is to live in that island and, of course, advise us to follow their example.

If we did not know about the food-rationing, about the desperation of Cubans to escape the island ... about the killings and the jailing of dissidents ... about the thousands of Cuban girls who have to practice prostitution for a living ... about the climate of terror which exists in the island, about the raping of children's souls ... if we did not know about all of these and other horrors, we could be tempted to believe these robot-like children.

One Cuban boy, who came here a couple of years ago denounced the Internet as a "diabolical" invention ... a sad girl, who came some days ago to plug the revolution, spoke like as if she had memorized her speech. We wonder if she has a family back home who will be punished if she happens to falter and say the wrong thing.

So far, Cuban attempts at contaminating Venezuelans with their pitiful preaching has not made a noticeable dent in our society. Even the Chavistas look upon these poor children with pity and contempt because, although chavistas, they have been bred in freedom, which has not been the case with Cubans.

This is why Castro is universally despised in Venezuela.

However, not every Venezuelan despises Castro ... Chavez loves him ... and he is determined to copy the indoctrination program followed by Cuba for the last 30 years.

This is why Venezuelan children are starting to sing songs, to recite poems and to give pre-programmed speeches in praise of the "Bolivarian" revolution and their idol Chavez.

The government TV station has been put in charge of disseminating these criminal attempts at converting out children in uneducated robots.

Venezuela is already too far into a democratic mold to be in real risk of this contamination ... but we are not complacent. The Venezuelan family, and the educational establishment, are alert against this criminal attempt at raping the souls of Venezuelan children.

What is intolerable is not the idea that Chavez might be successful, but the very act of trying.

This morning, as I drove to Caracas from Valencia, I passed about 20 buses on the road, full of children, waving red flags ... they were coming to a political event organized by one of Chavez' mini-parties, PODEMOS ... a splinter of MAS.

At least three of these buses were from the University of Carabobo and one has to ask: What in the World are University buses doing in this type of partisan political event?

The answer is Corruption ... total impunity ... nobody is accountable anymore.

But the buses were full of children and adolescents ... this means that the raping of our Venezuelan children's souls is already in motion.

This will not be tolerated ... we will go to whatever lengths to make sure this will not happen.

By the way, I'm receiving many letters, both in favor and against my commentaries ... I welcome all of them. Exceptionally, I get some which are insulting and menacing, and these I will not answer. There are sick people all over the place. To those who ask me in good faith why I oppose Chavez, or if I am rich, or if I was part of the corrupt ruling elite of the last fifty years, let me say this:

1. I oppose Chavez because he represents the very opposite of my values. I came up from the lower middle class and have lived a wonderful life due to hard work and my efforts. I do not believe in the Welfare State and I don't believe that we have a "right" to obtain a house, a car, a job and economic security unless we work for it.

2. I oppose Chavez because I do not believe that a President can be a promoter of hate and discord but has to be a leader for all.

3. I oppose Chavez because I think that actions speak louder than words. Chavez is a charlatan.  He has done nothing to alleviate the plight of the poor. I consider him hypocritical and despicable because of his inaction against poverty while he tries to sound as the defender of the poor.

4. I oppose Chavez because he has aligned our country, and our country is not "his" country, with the most backward governments of our planet.

5. I oppose Chavez because he is trying to convert what once was a beautiful and free country into a a filthy, sad and chaotic totalitarian State.

6. I am not rich. I wish I were, because there is no sin in having money if you have acquired it honestly. In fact, I am not even well-off as of this moment ... but I can look at myself in the mirror every day without remorse.

7. For the last 40 years or so, I have been against all governments due to their ineptitude and corruption. I have been against the corrupt elites of all governments, including the very corrupt elite of the Chavez government ... one of the most corrupt I have ever seen.

I can document all of my assertions listed above. I only wish that those who oppose my views could say the same.

Then we would all be talking the same language.

Full disclosure anyone?

Gustavo Coronel is the founder and president of Agrupacion Pro Calidad de Vida (The Pro-Quality of Life Alliance), a Caracas-based organization devoted to fighting corruption and the promotion of civic education in Latin America, primarily Venezuela. A member of the first board of directors (1975-1979) of Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), following nationalization of Venezuela's oil industry, Coronel has worked in the oil industry for 28 years in the United States, Holland, Indonesia, Algiers and in Venezuela. He is a Distinguished alumnus of the University of Tulsa (USA) where he was a Trustee from 1987 to 1999. Coronel led the Hydrocarbons Division of the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) in Washington DC for 5 years. The author of three books and many articles on Venezuela ("Curbing Corruption in Venezuela." Journal of Democracy, Vol. 7, No. 3, July, 1996, pp. 157-163), he is a fellow of Harvard University and a member of the Harvard faculty from 1981 to 1983.  In 1998, he was presidential election campaign manager for Henrique Salas Romer and now lives in retirement.  You may contact Gustavo Coronel at email gustavo@vheadline.com