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Politics Plagues Cuban Medics Working in Venezuela *** As part of growing cooperation with socialist Cuba, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is bringing in up to 1,000 Cuban doctors to provide health care for Caracas' slums. This has touched off a storm of criticism from political foes who accuse the leftist leader of dragging Venezuela, the world's No. 5 oil exporter, toward Cuban-style communism.

Hardline opponents, backed by fiercely anti-Chavez private media, shrilly proclaim that the Cuban doctors are political commissars of Cuban President Fidel Castro doling out Marxism-Leninism along with medicine. "They aren't doctors; they're professional political activists," said Douglas Leon Natera, president of Venezuela's Medical Federation. He argues the Cubans are working in Venezuela illegally and stealing the jobs of local doctors. ***

CASTRO AND TERRORISM A CHRONOLOGY 1959-1967 *** Since 1948 when, as a young student, Fidel Castro participated in the violence that rocked Colombian society and distributed anti-U.S. propaganda, he has been guided by two objectives: a commitment to violence and a virulent anti-Americanism. His struggle since and his forty-two years rule in Cuba have been characterized primarily by these goals.

In the 1960's Castro and his brother, Raul, believed that the political and economic conditions that produced their revolution existed in Latin America and that anti-American revolutions would occur throughout the continent. Cuban agents and diplomats established contact with revolutionary, terrorist and guerrilla groups in the area and began distributing propaganda, weapons and aid. Many Latin Americans were brought to Cuba for training and then returned to their countries.***