Don't Go Hugo

Some would describe him as a man of destiny and hero of the poor who swept away decades of corruption that brought the world's third largest oil-producing country to its knees while others just call him the fat dictator in a stupid beret but any man who is loved by the poor and hated by the rich must be doing something right.
For 14 years Hugo Chavez has ruled over Venezuela and dragged his country up by it's heels but the talk is that this election campaign may be his last, either through ill health or being replaced by Presidential hopeful Henrique Capriles this weekend.
While Chavez's campaign promises more of the same that has done so much to improve the lot of the poorest Venezuelans, Capriles is promising a review of oil deals that has bankrolled Chavez's social programmes.
The smart money is on Chavez being the one celebrating Sunday evening, there are many more poor who will vote for the beret wearer than rich who would vote for Capriles and a return to the pre-Chavez days. 
Besides being a brilliant leader, Chavez is loved by the left not just because of his socialist policies but because he takes pot shots at the same targets we do.
At the UN in 2006, after following George W Bush onto the rostrum, he described George W Bush as the Devil and and donkey said that the he could still smell the sulphur. After Condoleeza Rice described Venezuela as a menace to democracy he went on TV to blow her a kiss and called her Condolence.
Tony Blair also came in for verbal abuse when he berated the British Prime Minister for invading Iraq, calling him 'shameless, immoral and an imperialist pawn who attempts to curry favour with Danger Bush-Hitler, the number one mass murderer and assassin there is on the planet.Go straight to hell, Mr Blair'.
I will be shocked if us Chavistas who will be sobbing into our lattes come Sunday evening.