Chávez, sitting at the stage desk, drew a diagram on a large white card, and, holding it up to the “Aló Presidente” cameras, told viewers that he’d been thinking about a new “windfall profits” tax on oil companies.

He called out to Rafael Ramírez, the president of P.D.V.S.A.—a tall, blue-eyed man who resembles Tim Robbins—and he promptly stood up and began taking notes, nodding furiously.

This was not a rehearsed moment; to an unusual degree, “Aló Presidente” is Chávez’s government in action, and it is a government that Chávez does not so much administer as perform live. A couple of Chávez’s younger advisers told me that they frequently felt like supporting actors in Venezuela’s own “Truman Show.”

Na New Yorker, Jon Lee Anderson, biógrafo de Che Guevara, traça um longo perfil de Hugo Chávez entre viagens no avião presidencial, conversas com membros do Governo Norte-americano, presença na gravação do ¨Aló Presidente¨descrito acima e visitas surpresa a Cuba.

Tungado do blog do Douglas Duarte, diretor do documentário ¨Personal Che¨, que chega a São Paulo nesta semana.