Shrink: Ortega Views Chávez as Father Figure

Blake Schmidt January 25, 2008

MANAGUA – President Daniel Ortega, who has long looked to leftist leaders Fidel Castro and Moammar Gadhafi as political mentors, now appears to view Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez as a “father figure,” according to psychiatrist Gioconda Cajina.

“It’s a fatherly perception. It’s happening to others, too, who act like Chávez’s children,” she said, referring to other Latin American heads of state who have received support from Venezuela.

Chávez visited Nicaragua this week and promised a long list of solutions to Nicaragua’s many problems.

During a speech with Ortega Jan. 16, Chávez said, “I’m Daniel’s favorite copilot” – prompting Nicaraguan journalists to snicker that Ortega is “Chávez’s chauffeur.”

Cajina said the two are also bonded by their affection and friendship with Cuban leader Fidel Castro, the patriarch of Latin American revolutions.

Ortega and Chávez, however, seemed to have different ideas of where Fidel Castro stands in the family hierarchy of Latin American comandantes.

After Ortega called Castro his “big brother,” Chávez later corrected him: “You said Fidel is our big brother, but Fidel is more than a big brother. He’s our father.”