By New York Post (Politics) | Created at 2026-10-10 19:42:04 | Updated at 2026-10-11 22:55:04
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A long line of future communist despots rejected the socialist and communist label — until they secured power.
As politicians, revolutionaries, and military officers, they knew better than to blurt out an affiliation that might cause them headaches abroad that could impact their performance at home.
Among the members of the notorious list was Cuba’s Fidel Castro, who famously visited New York City, complete with a stop at Yankee Stadium, after leading the revolution that drove the Batista regime from power in 1959.
Castro proclaimed that “our revolution is a humanistic one” and that “I have said very clearly that we are not Communists.” He went on to establish a communist regime with an iron grip on power that has held for 67 years and counting.
Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez, a former Army officer, followed the lead of his mentor Castro with the “humanist” label before declaring a socialist revolution and crusading against the US. The US now holds his successor Nicolas Maduro, who is facing narco-terrorism charges, after seizing him in a January raid.
Infamous Cambodian dictator Pol Pot formed the communist party of Kampuchia in secret, instead rallying around anti-imperialist principles and deploying the opaque phrase Angkar or “the organization.”
Soon after defeating a US-backed government in 1975, his totalitarian regime abolished private property and turned to forced deportations to the labor camps in the countryside.
Sandinista Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua took power from the Somoza regime and later proclaimed that “political pluralism and a mixed economy” were central to the revolution. His Marxist-Leninist followed by seizing large agricultural enterprises and corporations.
While even his staunchest critics haven’t compared him to a despot, Michigan Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed — who has ties to top radicals in the Democratic Socialists of America — insisted this week he is a “capitalist” and his campaign told The Post he has said he is “not a socialist” and “has never been a member of the DSA.”
