Or should that be "offensive diplomatics"? It would appear that El Caudillo Idiotario Chavez is generating no small share of backlash in his own neighbourhood, and even becoming a political liability to the Left in Latin America.

"None of this diplomatic buffoonery makes Hugo Chavez less potentially destabilizing. Chavez is determined to use petrodollars to win friends and to use arms sales - and, potentially, military adventurism - to intimidate foes. The danger he poses ought not to be taken lightly. As things currently stand, however, it seems that Chavez's foes have a lot to be thankful for. If they could not have a friend in the president of Venezuela, they at least got the next best thing; a thoroughly ridiculous enemy."

Not to mention the personification of just about every tradition of Latin American socio-economic failure that we've seen over the last century or so. But that's another subject.