Hack Blogspot

President Hugo Chavez is tops on Twitter in Venezuela less than 2 weeks after launching his account, surpassing Internet-savvy foes who dominate the social networking site and use it to oppose him. Chavez's account, "chavezcandanga," had racked up more than 237,000 followers as of Saturday morning — besting the 234,000 who receive tweets from Globovision, the only TV channel that remains critical of the socialist leader. In recent televised appearances, Chavez has trumpeted the meteoric rise of his Twitter popularity while downplaying the critical, often disparaging messages he receives. "Some criticize me, others insult me. I don't care," he said. "It's a form of contact with the world." The president joined Twitter on April 27 in an attempt to counter adversaries who have actively used the site to make accusations of human rights violations, organize protests and — above all — ridicule Chavez. He urged supporters to join as well, ca...

Hugo Chávez on his TV show, Alo Presidente. Photograph: Prensa Miraflores/EPA Think of a camel passing through the eye of a needle, or an irresistable force meeting an immovable object, or a giant round peg in a tiny square hole, and you get the idea: Hugo Chávez meets Twitter. Venezuela 's prolix president, a leader who does not speak so much as bathe in words, thousands of them at a time, is embracing the microblogging site, which caps utterances at 140 characters. Chávez opened a Twitter account yesterday, using the tag "cadanga", which in Venezuelan Spanish means daring or rebellious.