This Mugabe says God is on Zimbabwe's side

It's an act of God.

"The world is tumbling, but ours is going on. Doesn't that surprise you?" he says, with a meaningful glance.

"What is happening in Wall Street -- what relationship does it have with this little country called Zimbabwe? It's divine intervention. Absolutely."

This Mugabe is not the big man who has ruled Zimbabwe for 28 years. It is his nephew, Leo Mugabe: businessman, farmer, former lawmaker, channel surfer of religious programs and, like his uncle, target of international sanctions.

Mugabe notes, with a smile of satisfaction, that the Western financial mess makes Zimbabwe look good by comparison. The country may have inflation of 231 million percent, but America's bank bailout has even more zeros.

Leo is the son of President Robert Mugabe's sister Sabina and is described as Mugabe's favorite nephew. He runs an engineering company called Integrated Contracting Engineers, which is powerful by virtue of his connections and has won several big government infrastructure projects.

A tall, slim figure with a wispy goatee and salt-and-pepper hair, the 51-year-old sees Zimbabwe almost as a chosen country: Any other would have crumbled with just half Zimbabwe's inflation, yet it still somehow struggles along, he says.

Expansive and relaxed, he offers a fervid defense of the government, reflecting the view of his uncle's ZANU-PF party that the entire crisis boils down to the West's determination to use sanctions to oust a plucky regime that thwarted colonial exploitation on the African continent.

"God has answered. But he has not finished answering them for the illegal sanctions. I believe you'll see more floods, cyclones, fires and economic woes, just by us kneeling down and asking God to rescue us from them."

Leo Mugabe's name was added to the list of individuals facing U.S. sanctions early this year. He also faces European Union sanctions as director of Zimbabwe's state-owned arms dealing company, Zimbabwe Defense Industries.

The sanctions freeze assets in Europe and the U.S., ban travel there and bar U.S. companies from doing business with him and Europeans from trading with the arms company.