As hundreds of Venezuelans converged in Doral to celebrate the passing of the Bolivarian revolutionary Hugo Chávez, Miami's number one Cuban exile radio provocateur, Armando Pérez Roura, spent yesterday afternoon proselytizing how Chávez's death was a major blow to the Cuban government. The Radio Mambí commentator, in true spook form, told his listeners the Venezuelan people had new hope now that Fidel Castro's puppet president in their country had met his maker.
"Cuba pulled off a military invasion of Venezuela through Chávez 14 years ago," Pérez Roura blasted over the airwaves. "He took his marching orders from Fidel Castro."
The tiny little fact that Chávez was democratically elected and re-elected didn't stop Pérez Roura from spouting his wild conspiracy theories that the late Venezuelan prez was nothing more than a "Trojan horse" for Castro to spread communism to South America. He described communism as an "abomination that goes against the values of people from Latin America."
The 85-year-old Pérez Roura is one of the last voices on Spanish-language radio who still espouses a hard-line right-wing point of view on Univision-owned Radio Mambí. He initially supported the Castro revolution but broke with Fidel in 1962, the year he was expelled from Cuba. Since then, Pérez Roura has been one of the most vociferous Castro agitators in Miami.
While Pérez Roura praised Chávez's passing as an opportunity for the country to elect a true democratic leader, he cautioned that Venezuelans must remain vigilant if their country's military leaders use armed force to ensure the United Socialist Party of Venezuela remain in power.
Follow Francisco Alvarado on Twitter: @thefrankness.
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