But not exactly in the way you might think. The Venezuelan dictator vowed to recall Venezuela’s ambassador to Peru if Peru’s voters DARED cast their ballot for Alan Garcia instead of his favored Ollanta Humala in next month’s second-round presidential debate.

It’s so insane, so guaranteed to backfire, so likely to rally the Garcia vote, so likely to hurt Humala that it makes me think Chavez is on cocaine.

Peruvians don’t particularly care one way or another about diplomatic relations with Venezuela. What they do care about is some foreign dictator trying to dictate how they will vote through various coercions. They will strike hard at Chavez by rallying for Garcia. Garcia is not perfect but he’s independent and democratic and his election will be good for everyone.

Aleksander Boyd at VCrisis has the scoop here.

UPDATE: Alan Garcia has challenged the Venezuelan dictator to a debate on CNN! He doesn’t see a need to debate Ollanta Humala, given that Chavez controls that puppet, and wants to go straight to the source! What a gutsy guy! Read it here!