Good News: Hugo Chavez Hearts WordPress

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After joining the Twitterverse in April, it looks like Venezuela’s President has decided to launch an official blog powered by WordPress (self hosted of course).

According to the AP, Chavez launched the site in order to help combat rumors being spread about him online, although right now his blog seems more geared to preaching “the revolution” (which is code word for socialism for you free market lovin’ capitalists).

Although the site makes no mention of WordPress (which might be a good thing for the company!), looking at the code behind the blog reveals the WP code from within. [Read more…]

Twitter Verifies Chavez’s Account (But What’s With The Funky Name?)

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After announcing plans to join the Twitterverse, it looks like Hugo Chavez has finally settled upon a Twitter name, although unfortunately for him he was unable to secure the coveted @hugochavez (despite its current inactive status).

So what has the “glorious” Venezuelan president picked as his personal username? Answer: @ChavezCandanga.

According to SpanishD!ct, Candanga “means devil” which is odd as the Chavez use to refer to America’s former President by that term (at least on television that is).

Twitter has already verified Chavez’s account as legitimate (although ironically they have not done the same for Fidel Castro’s) and as of this post Chavez’s account is quickly approaching 115,000 followers.

Thus far it appears as if Chavez is tweeting from his personal Blackberry via ÜberTwitter (which is very unusual for a head of state), although hopefully one of his more tech savvy comrades can enlighten him about the “official” Twitter for Blackberry app (as well as his dictator friends).

(Image Credit: Presidency of the nation of Argentina, via Mashable)

Another Day, Another Dictator Decides to Join–Twitter? (Chavez)

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Watch out Oprah! It looks like the twitterverse has a new member who want to “enlighten” the masses with his political gospel.

Hugo Chavez, the current President of Venezuela (or dictator, depending on who you talk to) has decided to join the netizens on Twitter, which would make him the second dictator to due so (as his mentor Fidel Castro has already established an account).

Hugo has not announced what his new account will be, but unfortunately for him it looks like the screen names @hugo, @chavez and @hugochavez are all being used (although he might be able to receive the last one if he applies “enough pressure” unfortunately).

Other heads of state on Twitter include President Barack Obama, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera (@sebastianpinera), although ironically Twitter makes the extra effort to verify the accounts of western leaders (a service that isn’t available to dictators).

While Chavez will probably just use the account as another way to promote his proproganda, it will be interesting to see if his entrance will inspire more Venezuelans to join the micro blogging site.

Image Credit: Agencia Brasil