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The Castro in Caracas - Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez, in Fidel's image*** Welcome to the world of Hugo Chavez. It would be easy to dismiss Chavez as a character from a Woody Allen movie if the stakes weren't so high and the consequences so grave. Recent defectors from the presidential palace accuse Chavez of supporting Hczbollah and al-Qaeda activists in Venezuela, and Chavez was one of the few heads of state to denounce the U.S-led war in Afghanistan. In 2000, he became the first Western leader since the Gulf War to pay a state visit to Saddam. ("Imagine what the Pharisecs will say when they see mc with Saddam Hussein," he gloated.) Chavez has also imported hundreds of Cuban activists-he calls them "sports instructors" to arm his thousands of civilian supporters in the "Bolivarian Circles," a private militia that rivals the national police force.

........Chavez calls President Bush's efforts to reach a hemispheric-free-trade deal by 2005 "the caldron of hell itself" and is threatening to create a more protectionist, Latins-only trade bloc to derail the U.S-backed initiative. His politicization of the state oil company has drained it of nearly one million man-years of experience and made Caracas an increasingly unreliable supplier of oil all the more worrisome as instability looms in the Arab world. And if Chavez really is providing safe haven to rebels who are holding American citizens hostage and trying to overthrow Colombia's democratic government, the Bush administration can expect calls from Bogota -and Capitol Hill-to designate Venezuela as a state sponsor of terrorism.***

Communist Revolt Is Alive, and Active, in the Philippines - "tactical alliance" with the Muslim insurgents ***A nationwide movement that feeds on the country's widespread poverty and government abuses, the Communist rebels - the New People's Army - pose a greater potential long-term challenge, according to analysts, than does the Muslim insurgency in the south that today preoccupies the military, as well as the United States. Active in a number of areas around the country, the insurgents generally operate in small units, although they sometimes carry out attacks with as many as 100 or 200 fighters.

Here in the shadow of Mount Arayat, a rebel stronghold, villagers say the Communists are more active than ever. "Do I feel safe?" said Father Sahagun. "Who feels safe in a place like this? Nobody feels safe." Adding to the danger, the Communists have threatened to form a "tactical alliance" with the Muslim insurgents, who are fighting a separatist war on the southern island of Mindanao and on smaller neighboring islands. Some of the Muslims are believed to have links with terrorist groups associated with Al Qaeda.

The United States has placed one small, violent band, Abu Sayyaf, on its list of terrorist organizations and earlier this year offered to send some 2,000 troops to help fight it. It is the much larger group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, with which the Communists have been in contact. Last August, at the request of the Philippine government, Washington also added the Communist insurgency and its front organization, the National Democratic Front, to the list.***