In yet another mockery of democracy, Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez has kicked off his presidential campaign … using misappropriated government funds, for it is not with bankrupt ideas that he leads his masses – but with buyoffs and handouts. Veneuzela’s election is in early December.

Chavez cheats at elections, so it would seem he’s got it made no matter what kind of campaign he runs. But for reasons I don’t entirely understand I know this is a big deal for them. I have a source in Miraflores Palace who’s told me that in all sincerity. A really really big deal for them. Their number one priority. They will be watching the western media closely and have instructed their acolytes to write complaining letters to the editor over here, so expect plenty of those as that network rolls out. Meanwhile, they’ve wheeled out the soup kitchen down in Caracas.

All of this is illegal.

Use of public funds for a presidential campaign, even the incumbent, is totally illegal. And Chavez is spending millions in public funds. No campaign fundraisers for him, he’s got the state as his ATM. And he doesn’t need to watch his funds, it’s a bottomless purse.

Three Venezuelan bloggers today show three apects of the same story, doing exactly the checking and balancing that blogging is all about. All three are original, with each a valuable and different part of the picture.

Alek Boyd at VCrisis has a fascinating essay just out about broad patterns of Chavez’s campaign strategy, showing how a lot of small news stories fit neatly together in the context of a whole strategy, that of reelecting Chavez. It’s thoughtful and observant, giving the real significance of a lot of small news stories as part of a unified whole here.

Miguel Octavio has something a bit different – hard documentary evidence of Chavez’s misappropriation of public funds, in photos, including receipts and photographs from insiders and the streets of Caracas. It’s an astonishing array of evidence of graft right there up front.

Daniel in Yaracuy has more still, a fantastic narrative of how the farcical campaign has all gone, the view from the television screen and the streets, telling the story of what Chavez has done, how the newspapers are satirizing him, and what an uncouth spectacle it’s turning into, especially compared to the dignified and restrained reelection campaign of his neighbor, the honorable President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia. Read it here.