THE AMAZON TRAPEZE

The election of a Castro-Chavez Communist to the presidency of Bolivia last month, Evo Morales, has accelerated fears that South America is falling into a masochistic abyss of fascism and poverty.

Those fears are about to get much worse – because there is another Castro-Chavez Communist coming down the South American pike far more dangerous than “Coca Evo” (Morales is a coca leaf farmer and is legalizing coca production again).

We’re talking about Ollanta Humala, who seems poised to be elected president of Peru this coming April.

Evo Morales is a cunning street smart charismatic demagogue, but uneducated, barely literate, not very bright, dependent on Chavez’s oil money and as such, is Chavez’s puppet who does what he’s told by the Venezuelan caudillo.

Ollanta Humala was educated in Peru’s best schools. His father, Isaac Humala, is a wealthy attorney and prominent intellectual who writes prolifically in praise of “Marxism-Leninism,” the philosophy of Soviet Communism. As a Lieutenant Colonel in the Peruvian Army, he led an abortive coup attempt in 2000 against President Alberto Fujimori, copying Hugo Chavez’s similar stunt against Venezuelan President Carlos Andres Perez in 1992.

His brother Antauro fancies himself another Ché Guevara. In December 2004 he and a band of followers captured a police station in the Andes and tried to provoke a local revolt. When the peasantry failed to respond, Antauro killed four of the police officers. Captured, he’s now in prison.

Ollanta, cashiered from the army, is running for president bolstered by a flood of Chavez’s money. Peru is a far bigger prize for Chavez than Bolivia – and not just geographically (Peru is three times the size of California). Peru has three times as many people (27 vs. 9 million) and its $165 billion GDP dwarfs Bolivia’s $22 billion.

A straight-out Marxist, Ollanta has promised to nationalize much of Peru’s economy and abrogate the recently-signed Free Trade Agreement with the US. Yet the real threat is not economic. The real threat of Ollanta is real war with Peru’s neighbors.

In addition to Castro and Chavez, Ollanta has two heroes: General Juan Velasco, who led Peru’s pro-Soviet military dictatorship from 1968-1975, and General Andres Avelino Caceres, who led Peruvian forces in the War of the Pacific from 1879-1884. His admiration of Caceres is so high that Ollanta calls himself a Cacerista. He publicly refers to Chile as an “enemy” of Peru.

The War of the Pacific was fought between Chile and an alliance between Peru and Bolivia. Chile won, resulting in Bolivia losing her entire Pacific coastline and becoming landlocked, while Peru lost 10,000 square miles. Here’s a map depicting the losses:

Chile gained all of Bolivia’s Antofagasta coast and all of Peru’s Tarapaca coast. Here’s the map today:

It doesn’t take a crystal ball to see that Ollanta intends to ramp up Peruvian nationalism to consolidate his dictatorship, recreate a Peru-Bolivia alliance with his fellow Marxist Evo Morales, and with Chavez’s money, wage a war with Chile to regain Peru and Bolivia’s humiliating losses of 120 years ago.

All you need to see is Morales making a beeline for Caracas immediately after his election and given the total red carpet Head of State treatment by Chavez – then see who is standing next to Morales and given Chavez’s public endorsement: Ollanta Humala.

Yet picking a fight with Chile’s competent and well-armed military will not be Ollanta’s first war. Chavez wants Ollanta to fight a preliminary match beforehand against a man he hates: pro-American, anti-Marxist Alvaro Uribe of Colombia.

Which brings us to the Amazon Trapeze. Here’s a map of Colombia:

See that trapezoidal piece at the bottom of Colombia that reaches down to the Amazon River with the town of Leticia? That’s called the Trapecio Amazonico­ – the Amazon Trapeze. It allows Colombia access to the Amazon. Peru tried to seize it in a little skirmish called the War of Leticia in 1932-33 – and failed.

Chavez wants Ollanta to try and get it back. This will distract the Colombian military, Chavez hopes, enough to strengthen his buddies, the narco-Marxist guerrillas of FARC, and weaken Uribe’s government.

There are only three pro-American leaders in South America left now: Uribe in Colombia, Alfredo Palacio in Ecuador, and Alejandro Toledo in Peru. Toledo can’t run for re-election in April, so the race will be between Ollanta and a Congresswoman named Lourdes Flores, who is pro-freedom, pro-capitalist, pro-American, and despises Chavez. She and Ollanta are running neck and neck in the polls.

The election is April 9. If neither gets over 50% (there are other candidates), then there will be a runoff May 7, into which Chavez will pour money for Ollanta. Should he win, he and Chavez will quickly move to destabilize both the Uribe and Palacio governments. (Peru has had border wars with Ecuador since the 1830s.)

With them gone, the entire continent will have lurched left. Then we’ll have the election of a Marxist, Lopez Obrador, as president of Mexico to look forward to in July.

But let’s worry about that later. Focus on Peru for now. Let’s cross our fingers for Lourdes Flores, and hope a whole continent can avoid falling off an Amazon Trapeze.