Latin American Blowhard Watch

Former Nicaraguan dictator/current Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega addressed the United Nations yesterday, shedding his much-vaunted new, "moderate" image. The AP reports:

Ortega had started off addressing the central theme of this year's General Assembly meeting - climate change - but he quickly launched into a tirade against global capitalism, meandering from his notes and speaking well beyond his allotted 15 minutes.

The world is under "the most impressive, huge dictatorship that has existed - the empire of North America," he said. An "imperialist minority is imposing global capitalism to impoverish us all and impose apartheid against Latin American immigrants and against African immigrants."

Elsewhere in Latin American, Venezuela's megalomaniacal leader Hugo Chavez, who skipped* the UN climate confab to meet with K-Pax star Kevin Spacey, set a new record on his Sunday gabfest Alo Presidente. The Guardian's Rory Carroll reports from Caracas:

The clock showed it was just after 7pm. The Venezuelan president had started at 11am, more than eight hours earlier - a new record. He looked into the camera and grinned: "The first time in history."

Welcome to Aló Presidente!, a television chatshow like no other. Sunday's edition, No 295, was the longest yet, a marathon of politics and showmanship, and for many proof that Venezuela has become a country governed largely through television.

* Venezuela's government-run news agency, Agencia Bolivariana de Noticias, said that despite Chavez's UN snub, the government "has a lot to say about the [climate change] issue and to (sic) clearly show the significant responsibility the capitalist system has in environmental decline."