Venezuela is staring down D-Day, the great final election of a year full of Latin American elections, beginning this Sunday.

At stake: Will Hugo Chavez be thrown out of power by his own people?

Right now, the polls are mixed, with Chavista polls saying Chavez has a wide lead, and Opposition polls saying Manuel Rosales, his challenger, has a small lead. Besides that, there were the vast avalanchas, showing tremendous commitment from the opposition.

The fate of the entire hemisphere – and whether we will have Iran-style nuclear issues directed at the states, from Iran’s ally, Hugo Chavez – hinges on this vote. It’s a massively critical day of history.

Will Hugo Chavez win?
Will Hugo Chavez lose, but cheat and say he won?
Will Hugo Chavez lose?

Those are the questions.

If you aren’t up on Venezuelan blogs, here are some of the most primo ones in English, by Venezuelans blogging on the ground in Venezuela, and reporting everything they see:

Venezuela News & Views, by Daniel Duquenal – an authoritative blog from the provinces, it chronicles and analyzes everything it sees on the ground with great intelligence.

The Devil’s Excrement, by Miguel Octavio – an authoritative blog from Caracas that chronicles all the shenanigans of Chavistadom, much faster than the media does – the media in fact uses it as a cue for stories it reports the following week.

VCrisis by Alek Boyd, a Venezuelan who’s been carefully tracking and reporting the Rosales campaign with a depth not seen in the media. He’s now in Caracas for the election and liveblogging the whole thing.

Venezuela Today – whose location and editor I don’t know, but which serves as a critical nerve center for all credible Venezuelan issues blogging. It’s the Venezuelan Drudge Report and has links to everyone who’s blogging this election. Venezuela Today has just discovered a new blog, which has been set up just to chronicle the election, and in all languages, called to2blogs Venezuela, which can be viewed here.