The joke's on President Chavez

The Miami Herald ^ | January 6th, 2002 | CHRISTINA HOAG

[support venezuela]

The joke's on President Chávez BY CHRISTINA HOAG choag@herald.com

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez

It was a practical joke that may have worked too well: Two Miami radio-show hosts known for playing outrageous pranks on the air got Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez on a private line this morning by pretending that Cuban leader Fidel Castro was calling him from Havana.

''We still can't believe it,'' said Enrique Santos, co-host of El Vacilón de la Mañana, (The Morning Joker), on WXDJ-FM El Zol 95.7, a Spanish-language salsa station. ``He fell for it.''

The station owner didn't, though, and the DJs were waiting today to find out what would happen.

The joke was part of a segment called Fidel Te Llama or ''Fidel's Calling You,'' in which Santos and his co-host, Joe Ferrero, call various people and play snippets of a controversial conversation between Castro and Mexican President Vicente Fox that Castro made public in 2001.

Hearing Castro's distinctive rasp, the unsuspecting recipients of the call usually believe it is the comandante himself on the phone. After a few minutes of a disjointed conversation in which the same nonsensical sentence fragments are repeated, the victims get suspicious.

Santos and Ferrero then drop the bombshell that it is a Miami radio station calling.

On Monday, Chávez, who counts Castro as his strongest ally and unabashedly touts Cuba's Communist system as a role model, fell victim to El Vacilón.

The irreverent DJs said they started calling Miraflores Palace, the Venezuelan White House, on Friday. About 8 a.m. Monday, using a Cuban-accented woman posing as a Havana operator, they got through to a presidential aide who identified himself as Lt. Arcia.

The secretary said Castro was on the line and wanted to speak to the Venezuelan president. Castro's taped voice can be heard in the background, leading the unwitting officer to believe the dictator was really on the line.

The officer offered to have Chávez call Castro back, but the secretary explained that the Cuban was in a secret location and could not be phoned. The officer gave the radio station the number of Chávez's private line.

''Hello Fidel!'' booms Chávez.

''Did you receive my letter?'' asks Castro.

''Of course I received it,'' replies Chavez. ``I spoke with Germán.''

''I'm all set to collaborate with you,'' Castro says.

As the nonsequiturs start, El Vacilón fakes trouble on the line to disguise the rejoinders that don't make sense.

''Yes, brother, how's it going?'' Chávez asks.

''I'll do what you're asking me to,'' Castro replies.

''I don't understand,'' a bewildered Chávez says.

''But I'm going to be harmed, I confess to you,'' Castro says.

Silence from Chávez. Castro goes on: ``Everything's set for Tuesday.''

''Everything's set for Tuesday,'' Chávez repeats, obviously befuddled. ``I don't understand.''

Santos then breaks in and announces they were calling from Miami. Complete silence from Chávez. Santos launches into a tirade: ''Terrorist! Animal! Murderer!'' plus a few choice four-letter nouns. ``You're finishing off the Venezuelan people!''

Santos then hangs up.

The irreverent pair were stunned with their success, which caused them to break into an English banter on air and flub a music play.

The station's switchboard lit up with a flood of callers, including the owner, Raúl Alarcón Jr., whom Santos described as ``not very happy.''

Ferrero said the import of what they had done started to hit them during the dialogue with Chávez. ''We didn't know what to do,'' he said. ``This was a conversation between two presidents.''

A spokesman at Miraflores Palace could not be reached for comment this morning.

This isn't the first time that the radio personalities have ruffled a few feathers. Last April Fool's Day, they announced an upcoming concert with Julio and Enrique Iglesias and that the first people in line at AmericanAirlines Arena would get free tickets.

After the stadium was inundated with fans, the pair received a three-day suspension -- with pay.

[support venezuela]

Well, Something to make you smile during these hard times in Venezuela.

[Celtjew Libertarian]

Hugo Chavez: President of Venezuela and First Lady of Cuba.

[GunRunner]

I have a hard time believing this is real. Is this from the Onion?

[GunRunner]

Checked the link. Looks real to me. Wow, what are the odds? Props to Enrique Santos. Down with Chavez!

[GunRunner]

D'oh!!

[The Obstinate Insomniac]

ping

[Dog]

Whoa these guys are cool!!!!!

[Dog]

FYI.....:-)

[moyden]

Bueller!

[Dog Gone]

This is too funny.

[Miss Marple]

Thanks for posting this. It made me laugh!

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Hugo Chavez - Venezuela

Fidel Castro - Cuba

9/11: Chavez financed Al Qaeda, details of $1M donation emerge***The day after the attack, September 12, Chavez supporters publicly burned the Stars and Stripes in the main square of Caracas in an outburst of gleeful satisfaction over the attacks. The organizer of the Plaza Bolivar protest, Lina Ron (a.k.a. "Rosa", born 9/23/59 in Anaco, Anzoátegui state), received public praise from Chavez. Unknown to the press, Lina Ninette Ron Pereira had been on the payroll of Caracas governor Hernan Gruber Odreman, ever since Chavez appointed him head of the Distrito Federal in 1999. She is still employed by Chavez, today working for Caracas borough mayor Freddy Bernal of Chavez's MVR party. There, she is in charge of a "cultural center" which mobilizes masses for pro-Chavez demonstrations and is active in breaking up opposition events.

$1M for Al Qaeda to fight against the United States

But Chavez did not stop at merely praising the attacks and having his support groups burn the American flag. He wanted to do more. He wanted to help Al Qaeda and the Taliban in their coming war against the United States. Juan Diaz Castillo from Venezuela's Air Force, was given that job. The private pilot of Hugo Chavez, Major Diaz Castillo has since defected and has started to talk. As the trusted insider who flew the president's Airbus, he was an eye-witness to secret meetings between Chavez and some of the top dictators in the world. He was also in charge of organizing one million dollars worth of assistance from Chavez to Al Qaeda.

" - Chavez trusted me completely. So right after 9/11, when he decided to help Al Qaeda, he turned to Jorge Oropeza and to me. Jorge was my boss in the presidential air support unit, but he is just a political appointee, so I did all the actual work." The work, as ordered by Chavez, was to help Al Qaeda but to make it look like he was helping the Taliban, using humanitarian grounds as the excuse.***

[nicollo]

This is a classic!

A fraternity brother of mine was from an important family in Greece. One summer, I called him at the number he'd given me. A man answered and hung up on me after some confusion over my asking for my friend. "There's no Alexis here," he said, angrily. I didn't know what to make of it, and I called back. He hung up on me, saying I'd reached a private number and I should never call back.

The next Fall, I told my friend about it. I told him the number I had called, and he said that the number was wrong, for it was short a digit. I suggested we try it and he can see what happens. So we called, and we got the same man on the phone. My friend started speaking to him in Greek, and he was hung up on in no time.

I tried it again, soon after. The man was furiuos. He said in English that I was calling the President of Greece, and that I should never call back again. Incredulous, we tried the number again. This time, alcohol-driven, as usual, my friend started railing on the guy when he answered. The President at the time was a socialist, and my friend was an adamant anti-communist (on a trip to Moscow, he and another friend were "questioned" by Russian police for having dropped trousers in front of Lenin's tomb at Red Square; friends bailed them out with a couple cases of vodka).

We repeated these calls a few more times, generally at night, which put it at morning Greek time. Each time, Alexis ranted in Greek, saying God knows what, although certainly with a few good criticisms of the prevailing Greek politics. After a few of these sessions, the number ceased to work.

Later, Alexis told his brother, a political player in Athens, what happened. His brother checked it out and told us that we'd dialed the personal residence of the President of Greece.

True story.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

DJs fool Chavez into taking call*** from 'Fidel' The Cuban-American disc jockeys kept Mr. Chavez on the line for nearly two minutes before yelling into the receiver to end the call.

Mr. Santos: "Hugo Chavez."

Mr. Chavez: "Yes."

Mr. Santos: "Enrique Santos and Joe Ferrero from Miami. Get out of Venezuela, [expletive], terrorist. You're finishing off your people. Animal, assassin, [expletive]."

Mr. Santos said that the station had been flooded with congratulatory telephone calls from listeners, but that the station's owner, Raul Alarcon, was "not very happy."

"We see Hugo Chavez as taking Venezuela down the same path as Fidel Castro took Cuba. He is a criminal. The owner got a letter about our very strong finish. But we asked [Mr. Alarcon] what he would say if he were in front of Fidel Castro. He was quiet for a minute and then he agreed with what we said," said Mr. Santos.***

[GunRunner]

Cool.

[Hope from Venezuela]

This is so real that yesterday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Roy Chaderton, declared that eventually Venezuela will sue these guys. Imagine, a country that can't investigate killings on its territory is going to sue two foreigners who revealed how incompetent the people surrounding Chavez really are, not to mention how gullible this little dictator is.

[Hope from Venezuela]

You can download the tape at this link: http://www.venezuelalibre.net

This is the biggest e-mail rage in Venezuela for the past two days. In fact, this is the biggest laugh we Chavez opponents have gotten since he hugged the Queen of England.

I hope you enjoy it as much as we have.