Chávez's success is as much about how the poor feel about their place in society as it is about improvements in their material conditions.

With just a few days to go before Sunday's elections (14 April), there's only one winner: Chávez's former vice-president Nicolás Maduro. Here we look at the last-minute grenades coming his way and how he's batting them back with a little help from friends (and enemies) abroad.

In three weeks time, Venezuelan's will vote in their first Presidential contest for 15 years without Hugo Chávez. But Chavismo is set to record yet another victory

Hugo Chavez, the populist and controversial leader of Venezuela, died at 58-years-old on 5 March in Caracas after 14 years in power. Chavez had battled an unspecified cancer for four years. His death has been met with an outpouring of sorrow or relief, depending on who you listen to.

The tragic death of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez has reverberated around the world in a manner befitting his impact not only on the lives of millions of Venezuela's poor, but on the poor and supporters of justice everywhere.

Government after government across Europe has been thrown out since the great recession began to drive back living standards. Whether on the centre-left, such as Gordon Brown and Zapatero, or on the right with Berlusconi and Sarkozy, political rejection has started to look inevitable. But Rafael Correa's massive re-election win in Ecuador yesterday was a reminder to his European counterparts that political defeat is no iron law of politics.

In her letter, the Argentinian president accuses Britain of having taken possession of the islands - known in Argentina as Las Malvinas - in a "blatant exercise of 19th century colonialism." Any objective rendering of the history of the Falklands reveals that she is right.

This was a group of people in anticipation of a new era for their country. I felt simultaneously honoured to bear witness but also a little like a gatecrasher at an intimate family celebration. I wish this family well because peace is an inalienable right too.

When I arrived in Caracas, it soon became apparent that the election the British media was reporting wasn't the same election campaign being experienced by hundreds of thousands of ordinary Venezuelans.

On October 7 the Venezuelan people go to the polls to elect a government. The contest has come down to a straight contest between the present incumbent Hugo Chavez and his United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV), and Capriles Radonski and his Roundtable for Democratic Unity coalition (MUD).