Found this article that speaks to the emerging threat in Central and South America. The newsletter is one that I've received for years and provides very good reading. The article is listed under the March 2003 issue.
Christian Anti-Communism Crusade’s 50th Anniversary
http://www.schwarzreport.org/ 1953-2003
Reds in Latin America
by Chuck Noe
With the Cold War seemingly won decades ago and the United States focused on terrorism and the Middle East, few Americans worry about communism. But close to home, Latin America’s far left is rising with a vengeance that threatens U.S. interests and security.
Cuba is no longer the only socialistic regime in the Western Hemisphere. Get ready for a new ‘domino effect’:
* Castro allies have won power in Venezuela, Ecuador, Chile and Latin America’s largest country, Brazil.
* Communist guerrillas have wreaked havoc in Peru, Colombia and Bolivia.
* Growing economic crises threaten such debt-ridden nations as Argentina and Uruguay.
With Republicans now controlling both houses of Congress, specialists expect Washington to attend to “Latin America’s populist movements that target U.S. policy as one of its adversaries,” Mark Severino of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs told The Washington Times.
Protests against President Hugo Chavez, an intimate of communist Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, have become routine. U.S. observers share the concerns of Venezuelans.
Chavez threatens freedom in Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru and Brazil, warns Constantine C. Menges, a senior fellow with the Hudson Institute and a former assistant for national security to President Ronald Reagan.
“That could bring nearly 300 million people under the control of pro-Castro/Iraq radical regimes before 2004—a major gain for anti-U.S. terrorism and a major setback for the people there and for the Bush administration,” Menges recently told CNN.
A three-letter word explains why Venezuela matters so much: oil. Caracas, the world’s No. 5 exporter of petroleum, has Washington over a 42-gallon barrel.
A general strike against Chavez in December paralyzed Venezuela’s oil industry, which fills more than 10 percent of America’s supply. Such disruptions can recur at any time.
If unchecked, Chavez and Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will cement “a powerful axis of evil right in the Western Hemisphere,” Menges recently warned the Institute of World Politics.