Not many revolutionaries make the transition from old 1960s leftwing Castro worshippers into New Style revolutionary in the Age of Orange, Cedar, Rose, Daffodil, and Velvet Revolutions, which we live in today.

Daniel Duquenal has a fascinating portrait of Teodoro Petkoff, a Bulgarian-Venezuelan leftist who did a stretch as a guerrilla in the mountains long ago, came down, and then went on to much better things.

He’s now a leading news editor in Venezuela that pointedly opposes thugs and tyrants. Petkoff launched a new book called ‘Dos Izquieridas’ about the democratic and the non-democratic left. He is a formidable opponent of dictator Hugo Chavez. And he is quirky and interesting as it is possible to be.

How is this for interesting? Daniel writes:

That he thinks the left is the best way to address Latin American glaring disparities does not stop him from being convinced to use capital to develop a country instead of the dead certainties that rule us today. Some of (Petkoff’s) words, from memory: “Capitalism has demonstrated to be unique in its ability to generate plenty”.

All of Petkoff’s work is worth reading, even if one does not agree with all of it. Thinking people everywhere will agree with most of it.

Daniel has a portrait of this unusual revolutionary here.