The book “Los brujos de Chávez” reveals that the Cuban government promoted Santeria in Venezuela

They say that in January 1991, French President François Mitterrand asked astrologer Elisabeth Teissier for some unique advice: “I must intervene, what day in your opinion would be the best?” The question in question referred to the best day to intervene in Iraq, together with the United States. If we know an anecdote like that today, it is because the astrologer was in charge of recording all her conversations with the French president between 1990 and 1995.

But we should not be surprised by something like this either, because if we look back, the History of Humanity has been marked by all kinds of magicians, shamans, necromancers and sorcerers who for centuries exerted their influence on kings and rulers, by virtue of divinatory powers that determined The right moment is the same for a battle, an alliance or to beget a child.

Therefore, the fact that power and esotericism go hand in hand is not a secret to anyone nor a privilege of literary or television fiction. Anecdotes like that of Mitterrand abound in the 20th and 21st centuries in which notable rulers and political leaders have often trusted and - strange as it may seem - continue to trust their most delicate decisions to divinatory powers.

Perhaps that is why the recent publication of “Chávez's Witches: Magic as an Extension of Politics” is not surprising, a book in which the Venezuelan journalist David Placer (“Digital Economy”) reveals how the figures of power in Venezuela ended up surrendered to all types of religious practices that in the author's opinion persist, and that the current president Nicolás Maduro would be trying to maintain.

The book - which was presented last week in Madrid - describes the scope of Santeria in Venezuela and its use by the Chavistas as an element to "retain power."

The volume has come to light after several visits by the author to his country of origin over 3 years in which he conducted more than 60 interviews with people in Hugo Chávez's intimate environment, especially with the group of people who helped him to become President of Venezuela in 2004.

According to Placer, “witchcraft” in Venezuela skyrocketed enormously during the years of Chavismo and in close alliance with the Cuban government. All kinds of rumors circulated that claimed that “witchcraft was being done” in the Miraflores presidential palace.

Placer explains that during Chávez's imprisonment - after the failed coup attempt in 1992 - the then colonel held spiritualism sessions in which the "liberators", supposedly, spoke through him and recommended that he "be the leader" of the movement.

In Placer's opinion:

He was superstitious, but he also used this kind of thing to manipulate his environment.

Regarding these practices, the Venezuelan journalist highlights that none of the interviewees who were part of Chávez's entourage:

They have denied it, but they have tried to justify it, saying that they were spiritual currents that do not have to be condemned either, because Catholicism also believes in spirits and performs exorcisms.

However, one of Placer's most important findings has been discovering that behind this “mystique of power” in Venezuela was the influence of the Cuban regime.

This is explained in the book through the confession that Raúl Baduel, former Minister of Defense of Hugo Chávez, made from prison. According to Baduel, the santeros became Cuban intelligence agents; hypotheses that have been corroborated by two Cuban santeros, who affirm that the process was slow but effective. According to one of them:

Cuban intelligence begins the infiltration with Santeria, in the end it changes the structures of society and all those who are involved in the religion think and act like Cubans.

We will have to read "The Sorcerers of Chávez", a book that has risked moving a slab as heavy or heavier than what some consider the cause of Hugo Chávez's curse: the opening of Simón Bolívar's sarcophagus.

And meanwhile, eyes open, because History continues to give clues about the hidden roots of the link between the Government of Cuba and Venezuela.