Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez has weighed in on both Iran’s apparent Presidential election and the hubbub that has since erupted:

We call on the world to respect Iran because there are attempts to undermine the strength of the Iranian revolution…

Ahmadinejad’s triumph was a triumph all the way. They are trying to stain Ahmadinejad’s triumph and through that weaken the government and the Islamic revolution. I know they will not succeed.

I suspect our breezy friend Hugo is looking at what is currently happening in Iran and seeing one of his few geo-political allies in distress as well as possible difficulties with his own magnificent rule. Consider Chavez’s growing paranoia as he tightens the noose on his old media enemy, Globovision. Consider also that Chavez is backing a regime who, the world over, has been illustrated to react to political unrest with seemingly unrestrained deadly force. How will this resonate with both opponents and even proponents in Venezuela?

I remain skeptical regarding the possibility of Mir Hossein Mousavi to over turn what the Guardian Council has confirmed to be a “legit” election. But if he does (maybe even if he doesn’t) I suspect we’ll see a bit more than simple expressions of solidarity from opponents of the Chavez regime. Lot’s of media attention and analysis has gone toward the current disparity in Iran. None, that I’ve seen, read or heard, has given thought to the international consequences as various political opposition parties (like the hefty sort in Venezuela) may well take a nod from Iran and act out their own “green” uprising.

Any military personnel who receives via the Internet, text messaging or other media, electronic mail, offensive messages, criticism or analogies of different natures that are contrary to the system of government presided by our Commander in Chief, Lt. Col. Hugo Rafael Chávez Frías, must notify its contents at once to his natural commander or to the intelligence directorate of the National Army

Order issued by Venezuela’s director of intelligence, General José Cristóbal Fuentes Torres.

Yes, I know, it’s tough to imagine why the leader of a socialist paradise should fear his own military.

As if Venezuela couldn’t get any crazier with Chavez engaging in battles of insults with the King of Spain and President of Colombia, everyone’s favorite buffoon-president is now signing oil production agreements with Belarus of all places (showing once again that birds of a feather flock together). Belarus and several Latin American countries are also teaming up to create a competitor to the IMF. And fresh from his constitutional referendum to become eligible for president for like, Chavez has created Venezuela’s own time zone, which is full of more potential wisecracks than I care to imagine:

Venezuela creates its own unique time zone on Sunday, putting the clock back half-an-hour on a permanent basis. President Hugo Chavez says that an earlier dawn means the performance of the country will improve, as more people will wake up in daylight. “I don’t care if they call me crazy, the new time will go ahead,” he said. But critics say the move is unnecessary and the president simply wants to be in a different time zone from his arch-rival, the United States. The new time puts Venezuela four-and-a-half hours behind Greenwich Mean Time, and out of step with all its neighbours.

Spanish King Juan Carlos tells Chavez to “shut up”.

Chavez repeatedly interrupted Spanish PM Jose Luis Zapatero at the Ibero-American summit in Chile last weekend, calling former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar a “fascist.” Zapatero, a socialist who defeated Aznar at the polls after the Madrid bombings, argued with Chavez openly that Aznar was a democratically-elected leader. The back-and-forth went on until King Juan Carlos of Spain leaned into his microphone and said: “Por que no te callas?”—“Why don’t you shut up?” You can watch the footage here (which, because of only one microphone, doesn’t look nearly as dramatic as it sounds).

The king’s admonition has since pinched a nerve across the Spanish-speaking world. From newspaper headlines to cable television news, to clips on YouTube, to T-shirts and cellphone ring tones. The scene has become a comedy skip on a television show in Mexico, and in El Salvador, the phrase has became a playful greeting. It remains uncertain a week later who put whom in his place. Some say it Chavez was the loser for his boorish lack of etiquette, or the king for unregally insulting a national leader at a forum whose theme was “social cohesion.” The leaders of Peru and El Salvador have since defended the King, while Cuba’s Castro and Brazil’s Lulu have come out for Chavez.

Each side made its own interpretation of the incident. The Spanish framed the incident as a simple case of the king upbraiding Chavez for not relinquishing the floor and for referring disrespectfully to a former PM, and Zapatero said this mere “moment of tension” would never have become known had TV cameras not been rolling.

Chavez ignored the comment at first, but four days later used it as an example of the former colonial power’s condescension. Chavez now demands a letter of apology from the King, and has “joked” with reporters using the word, according to Reuters. Venezuela’s state-run media has played footage showing King Carlos standing in the 1970s with Spain’s fascist ruler, Francisco Franco, and describing the king as the late dictator’s lackey. (Unmentioned in the footage of Carlos and Franco was the fact that the monarchy was endorsed by the Spanish people in a vote in 1978, and the king played a key role in quashing an attempted military coup in 1981, and the King is widely loved because of it.)

For me, the appearance of the incident is obious: Chavez is being his typically disrespectful self and is unfit to even be in the same room as other world leaders. I’m surprised if you can see the incident in his favor. And Chavez may think Aznar is a Fascist, but the Spanish could have told him the real meaning of the term—Zapatero’s grandfather was murdered by the real fascists in Franco’s secret police, and the King’s family was sent into exile by them. And as Venezuela blog Daniel’s Diary points out, and from where the picture to the left is taken, let’s not kid ourselves as to who’s tactics and leadership most rescemble fascistrule.

As for the summit, Argentina’s largest daily newspaper the Clarin said it would be remembered for “the differences, lack of agreements and opposing views made more noise than the accords and shared processes.”