and I wouldn't call him President-for-life just yet. He faces many troubles back in Venezuela, many critics, and despite all his advantages of incumbency and control over the media it's still possible that the people could turn against him. Not likely, but possible. Americans should wonder, though, why so many Venezuelans do support him. Could be they resent George Bush's support for a failed coup that nearly removed their democratically elected president? Perhaps they also resent decades of American administrations supporting right-wing governments who favored the wealthy in Venezuela?

People in other Latin American countries, even on the Left, have mixed feeling about Chavez. He always got lots of kudos and laughs for thumbing his nose at Uncle Sam but right now many people are expressing a desire to give Obama a chance, and they want Chavez to tone it down...plus nobody really wants Chavez interfering with their own internal matters.

It's been amusing watching the Presidential candidate on the left in El Salvador, Mauricio Funes of the FMLN, pretending he doesn't know Chavez while mentioning his desire for friendship with Obama quite a bit, and the guy on the right, Avila, making wild claims that Chavez is secretly funding the FMLN campaign.