It was publicity they wanted, and publicity they got. Some 50 newsmen, photographers and government officials crowded the dock at Pôrto de Santana, a steamy little town on the north channel of Brazil's Amazon delta. Then up the river it came: Venezuela's hijacked freighter Anzoátegui (TIME, Feb. 22). On the deck stood a triumphant Wismar Medina Rojas, 28, and his eight fellow hijackersall members of Venezuela's Castroite Armed Forces of National Liberation.
For eight days the Communists had led the Venezuelan and U.S. navies a merry chase, ducking south to Brazil when everyone thought...