Ramtin Arablouei and Randa Abdel-Fattah

He would get on TV every Sunday, and it was like this variety show.

He'd talk, interview people, sing songs.

There were dancers sometimes.

It was kind of weird.

And he could go on for hours.

His guest this week?

Journalist Rory Carroll.

It was actually on a beach way out in the sticks.

On a really hot day... He had his desk plonked in the sand...

And as the show opens, Chavez invites Rory to ask him anything.

And so I asked him why was he preparing to have a referendum to get rid of limits on presidential terms, which would basically open the door to him being potentially ruling for life.

You know, this course is on live television and his eyes narrowed in a kind of rather theatrical way.

You know, and then he turned to the audience, did you hear that?

Did you hear what he said?

Then Chavez goes on a tirade.

A tirade about me being an embodiment of European colonialism, of European hypocrisy.

And he tied this to first, you know, the sins committed by Columbus and then the Spaniards and then the British and the Royal Navy.

And I'm sitting there sweating because it's a hot day and I'm having Chavez pouring a bucket of rhetorical excrement over my head.

and turning me into rhetorical football.

And, you know, it went on and on.