There is most probably no left wing leader who had influenced public opinion inside and outside the Latin American part of the Western hemisphere to the same extent as the unconventional Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez had over the last decade. Doubtlessly, his death three weeks ago ended one phase of Venezuela’s political development. Now facing the caudillo’s loss, the electorate has to determine the sustainability of principal public diplomacy paradigms of the Chavez government.

The recent death of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez from cancer comes as no great surprise. The former military leader had rarely been seen in the public eye since December last year when he travelled to Cuba for surgery, and premature rumours about his death have been circulating for months. But his shadow now looms large over South America, standing with the likes of famous Latin American leaders like Che Guevara, Juan Peron and Fidel Castro.

On Thursday, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez expressed his excitement over the 3-month-old black terrier puppy he had received as a gift from his Russian counterpart. “He is a good dog and beautiful,” Chavez told a Russian delegation in the Venezuelan capital Caracas, according to the Associated Press. ”I’m going to call him ‘Russian’.”

At the end of November 2010, the world did a diplomatic double-take when WikiLeaks, a not-for-profit media organization released confidential U.S. diplomatic cables.

It's a rare day when Ecuador can out-Chávez Hugo Chávez. The Venezuelan president seems to seize every chance to criticize the United States, and he didn't miss a beat by praising the "bravery" of controversial website WikiLeaks – which is releasing a cache of 250,000 classified US diplomatic cables – and calling for the resignation of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

In only seven months, Hugo Chavez has passed 1,000,000 followers on Twitter. He announced the accomplishment this morning.

It's one thing to maintain ruthless control over an oppressed citizenry. But quite something else to tweet about it well. In today's Davos-driven geopolitics, even authoritarian leaders need to be savvy about public relations. That's why even the toughest leaders are all up on the Internet; they use Twitter to craft their images without the hassle and noise of competing parties or media bias.

Although hopes for the future of Venezuela seemed brighter a decade ago, the promises to the poor were not fulfilled and those hopes were crushed by the left-wing oppression of the Chavez government.