Here's one
for you: Early this month, in front of 200,000 screaming supporters
in Havana's Revolutionary Square, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro
bestowed Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez with UNESCO's 2005 International
José Marti Prize for promoting Latin American heritage,
liberty and values.
Huh? Chavez? Liberty?
I'm not sure what
the United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization
folks are "partaking" of, in their cushy Paris headquarters,
but the notion that Venezuela's caudillo is deserving of an award
espousing these ideals (not to mention presented by Castro in
Havana) simply boggles the mind.
It might be time for
Washington to reconsider its membership in — and its $80
million-plus contribution to — this misguided U.N. agency.
But hold on —
it gets worse. Not only was giving the award to Chavez a searing
insult to the real José Marti, a 19th century Cuban liberal
thinker who opposed all forms of tyranny; the event also turned
into a raucous anti-American hate-fest pumped-up by blistering
Chavez and Castro speeches.
The aged Castro, who
by some accounts slurred his way through his speech, praised his
island-prison Cuba, his protégé Chavez and Jose
Marti and spewed predictable volumes of anti-American bile, calling
the U.S. a world menace.
As Papa Castro presented
the certificate (and $5,000 in loot) to Venezuela's Fidelito,
the crowd cheered wildly, and waved Cuban and Venezuelan flags,
chanting: Cuba y Venezuela, una sola bandera (i.e., "Cuba
and Venezuela, only one flag").
Hardly unpredictable
at a government-orchestrated rally.
In a mind-numbing
2 1/2 hour speech that only a despot (or, maybe, Bill Clinton)
could give, Chavez called the U.S. a "brutal, cynical, murderous
empire," promising that "we will do everything to shred
it."
He also praised his
newest anti-U.S. compadre, the recently elected leftist Bolivian
president, Evo Morales.
Said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen
(R-Fla.): "It is astonishing and beyond the pale that a man
such as Chavez, who poses a very real threat to democracy, not
only in Venezuela, but in the entire region, and has engaged in
virulent anti-American attacks, was honored by UNESCO."
That's only the half
of it. Chavez has seized private property, closed radio and TV
stations for anti-government content and jailed critics. He has
consolidated single-party rule, stacked the courts with Chavistas
and won a 2005 election by stuffing ballot boxes, according to
Steve Johnson, a Latin America expert.
While Chavismo is
a blight on the lives of Venezuela's middle class and the liberties
of one of Latin America's (once) oldest democracies, Fidel's Mini-Yo
(i.e., "Mini-Me") has used Caracas' significant oil
wealth to dole out generous social services to the poor, making
Chavez wildly popular.
In the region, Washington
believes that Chavez is stoking the flames of his "Bolivarian
Revolution" in places like Nicaragua, Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador.
Chavez also supports Colombian FARC narco-guerillas in addition
to providing them sanctuary in Venezuela.
The darling of the
new authoritarian left, Chavez has become chummy with Iran, negotiating
a number of economic and trade deals. Caracas also defended Iran's
right to develop nuclear energy (read: nuclear weapons) earlier
this month by voting "no" when the IAEA agreed to report
Tehran to the U.N. Security Council over its atomic aspirations.
Besides being a big
fat finger in the eye of the U.S. and Marti's legacy, what does
giving the award to Chavez say about UNESCO, a highly controversial
organization that Washington boycotted from 1985 to 2003?
UNESCO was founded
"to contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration
among nations through education, science and culture in order
to further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law
and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed
for the peoples of the world."
Exactly how does honoring
Chavez support UNESCO's mission?
Without question,
elevating Chavez's stature through a U.N. award is an egregious
violation of UNESCO's charter — and the latest setback for
the U.N. in its rapidly sinking moral standing on human rights
and democracy.
If anything, UNESCO
should be rewarding the tireless efforts of little-recognized
champions of human rights that toil in obscurity for individual
freedom and dignity in places like Cuba and Venezuela, as Nile
Gardiner, a U.N. analyst, puts it.
It's wise for UNESCO
to remember that it's the U.S. that is one of its largest benefactors,
forking over 22 percent of UNESCO's budget. It should also understand
that this sort of outrageous anti-American, anti-freedom Theater
of the Absurd won't be tolerated, either.
Peter
Brookes is a Heritage
Foundation senior fellow and author of "A Devil's Triangle:
Terrorism, WMD and Rogue States." This article originally
appeared in The New York Post.
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