It hasn't been a good autumn for Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.Indeed, a series of bumbling, bonehead plays in recent months have dashed the erratic dictator's hopes to gain international influence. True, his outrageous actions and comments have kept him in the spotlight, but it's not because he's managed to become a ringmaster. Only the clown.
The spectacular defeat Chavez just suffered in his quest to change the country's constitution so that he could be dictator for life is just the latest blow to his ambition. Pablo Bachelet, writing in the Miami Herald, deftly describes the others.
