There’s such great blogging going on in Venezuela these days that I almost feel I have been remiss in keeping track of it all. Ahmadinejad of Iran is in Caracas, Chavez is running for reelection, and Venezuela’s economy is falling apart.

Here is a brief blog roundup from some of the finest:

Daniel, of Venezuela News & Views has a great bloggy mishmash (or since he is in France now, let’s say ragout) of acid comments about Chavismo with several pearls of observation, like this one about current condition of Chavez here:

The historian in this blogger has seen too many bombastic leaders, bloating up before their final burst.

He discusses Chavez’s indifference to Africa, outlines discrepancies and dodginesses in Venezuelan polling – very useful stuff – and discusses Chavez’s refusal to recognize Mexico, and his groteque sucking up to the dictator, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, in Iran. Read the whole meaty thing here.

Next, Miguel at Devil’s Excrement has come good stuff, too. He writes a financially savvy account of why inflation is shot through the Venezuelan system, and outlines all the reasonable ways Chavistas can stop it. Unfortunately, none of the dozen or so solutions he offers will please the Chavistas, who enjoy free spending ways. His post on that, nicely written in language a layman can understand, can be read here. Miguel also has a long interesting paella of thoughts on Ahmadinejad’s visit from Iran, Chavez’s loathing of Jews, Chavez’s refusal to recognize the election in Mexico, Chavez’s freakish business deals with fourth-rate third worlders – check out the incredible ironies in this post here:

As China decides to get caterpillar tractors, Venezuela goes with crappy Iranian ones, Chavez lets these foreigners run the joint tractor venture, despite the 50/50 split (Even if I have no proof the Iranians ever paid their share). Very quickly, a strike hits the plant as the Iranians refuse to increase salaries, because profits will dissapear and they even try to fire people when they go on strike.

The whole thing can be read here.

Alek Boyd at VCrisis has some good Caracas photoblogging of Chavista banners welcoming Ahmadinejad to Caracas, and other photos showing the plight of the poor and the handicapped, who must beg on highways and busy thoroughfares for spare change, a disturbing sight. The whole thing can be seen here.

Francisco Toro, skeptical as ever at Caracas Chronicles, continues to pick apart the campaign proposals of Manuel Rosales, who is promising much more than he can deliver to the poor. Francisco even has mathematical formulas mapping all of this out. If you like long cerebral posts – on a useful topic – Francisco’s is the place to go, here.

KA at Venezuela-U.S. Topics has a couple good posts out there. He describes scary political intimidation of Chavez’s political opponents now that the presidential race is on in this post here. KA also has a longer hodgepodge post of documented abuses in the running of the electoral system, everything from fraud tax suits against political candidates to problems in the election machine. It’s worth a look here.

Meanwhile, Pedro Burelli at PMBComments writes of items he’s seen in the media, assessing the positions of each and pointing out the danger of underestimating Chavez, who after all, does appear to be a buffoon but probably isn’t only that. Read it here.

Feathers has a good backgrounder on Chavez’s political mentor, a bonafide communist guy named Miquilena, who first gave the brutal leftist thug his start with Fidel Castro and then his entry into Venezuelan politics. Miquilena has since renounced Chavez, much to his credit. Read the whole post here.