Hugo Chávez: Portrait of A Man With Many Faces

Chávez shows Post Deputy Managing Editor Milton Coleman a tiny copy of Venezuela's constitution he carries around. (Miraflores Photo)

"I do think that the main reason to invade Iraq was the oil. And the main cause of the threats against us is, again, oil."

Paranoid? Perhaps. But let's face it: Chávez has spent time in the cross hairs of those out to topple him, a taste of his own medicine.

It was in this very room, he told us, that he was held on the night that he was betrayed, the night of the putsch in April 2002 when the infidels tried in vain to force him to resign the presidency.

And that was the night, he recalled, when Castro called and implored him: Chávez, whatever happens, whatever you decide to do, "you cannot die tonight."

Without a doubt, Castro is his Main Man -- the one, he said, who tutored him on how to calculate and utilize Venezuela's cash reserves; who schooled him on using the counterattack as a form of defense, as he'd done earlier in the day in discussing the FARC files; the one who has sent 30,000 Cuban doctors to help Chávez extend health care to Venezuela's plentiful poor, his core constituency.

Castro considers him "a brother and a son," Chávez said. "I truly love him as a father, and it doesn't bother me to say so. An older brother, no. He's a father, and I think he sees me as a son.

"Forgive me if what I am about to say sounds like an exaggeration. But if the world were to elect a president -- a president who could address the problems of the world, a president to lead the world, a president with the powers to do that -- Fidel would be the man."

* * *

With his airport motorcade awaiting him outside the palace, Chávez signed autographs and posed with the visitors for a group picture beneath that gigantic portrait of the Liberator.

"Todo mi amor," all my love, he wrote to a female visitor, the only other African American in the group. Along with his name and the date, he closed the message: "Tu hermano "-- your brother.

That is how he sees himself -- a brother to people of color. Many Americans would call Chávez black, Afro-Latino. He's actually pardo, a Venezuelan mixed-race group with primarily African and Indian roots. I am certain it is the reason he greeted me that day with a "black power" salutation.

It had now been nine hours since my arrival at Miraflores. The room had almost emptied, and Chávez was about to exit. But he had left behind the small blue cross he told us he has always carried since it was thrust into his hand that night of the coup six years ago as he feared imminent death.

"Señor Presidente," I called out to him and pointed to the cross on the coffee table. He retrieved it, and took a moment to show me something else he carries with him -- a tiny blue booklet version of the Venezuelan constitution.

We exchanged smiles, handshakes and farewells. He had the last word. "Adios," he said, pausing slightly, smiling and adding, "Hermano."