One thinks of Woody Allen's Bananas when confronted with two of our hemisphere's more colorful political figures. In the 1971 comedy, a group of rebels install a Castroish leader in a banana-republic coup only to see power overtake their hero's senses. "I am your new president!" Esposito declares. "From this day on, the official language of San Marcos, will be Swedish."

Many now question the mental state of Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and deposed Haitian Jean-Bertrand Aristide. Though neither have resorted to declaring Swedish the official language of their respective countries, signs of mental instability abound.

Despite signing a letter of resignation and fleeing the country, Aristide now contends that he is still Haiti's ruler. Chavez ignores Venezuela's constitutional provisions regarding popular referendum on sitting governments. His forces have killed seven demonstrators in the past week, and he boasts that Venezuala "has enough allies on this continent to start a 100-year war."

In both instances, a familiar pattern emerges. Blame your failures on the United States. Accuse the Central Intelligence Agency of staging the uprisings against your government. Equate dissent with treason. If the pattern is familiar, it is because it is a time-tested winner for Marxists in the Americas.

Bananas? No. "Crazy like a fox" seems a more appropriate tag for both Aristide and Chavez.