Hugo Chavez Divides World Opinion. but Who Is He, and What Is He Up to in Britain?

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Not surprisingly for a man who divides the world, Hugo Chavez is greeted as a saviour or a saboteur wherever he goes. The Venezuelan President seems immune to nuance and perfectly able to reduce the world to Chavistas or to Descualdos, the "squalid ones" as his supporters dismiss those who try to depose him.

European and Latin American leaders gathering yesterday in Vienna to deal with the detail of trade and energy policy were quickly reduced to a sideshow. Mr Chavez, the high priest of political theatre, knows how to draw and hold the spotlight.

Even a bikini-clad Greenpeace protestor who burst into a group photo couldn't steal the show. Like a pop star …