There’s nothing Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez relishes more than addressing the nation for hours on end, and on Thursday the loquacious leader seized the airwaves like never before.
Chavez began what he said would be a four-day Hello President radio and TV show celebrating the 10th anniversary of the program that has been widely emulated by other Latin American leaders.
“There’s no program like this one,” Chavez boasted as he launched the live program while standing outdoors at an electrical plant in western Venezuela. Chavez said the show would run through tomorrow, with some breaks of unspecified duration.
“We’re starting in the sunshine. We’ll probably have a program in the rain,” Chavez said. “We might have an episode at midnight, in the early morning. Keep an eye out.”
The marathon could threaten what Chavez said was his own personal record of talking for more than eight hours straight one Sunday in 2007.
Hello President was first broadcast on the radio on May 23, 1999, a month after Chavez took office. State TV began airing the show the following year, and it has become a pillar of efforts to counter what the president calls one-sided reporting by private news media.
Other Latin American leaders — from former Mexican president Vicente Fox to Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa — subsequently launched their own weekly broadcasts, but none has managed to duplicate the unpredictable Chavez’s ability to pull an audience.
Chavez has often burst into song, hugged visiting Hollywood celebrities and scolded careless camera operators while preaching his own brand of socialism.
He spoke for about 30 minutes on Thursday about the production of sardines in eastern Venezuela.
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