The New-look Chávez: Lover, People's Poet, Electioneer

It could be the cover of a romantic ballad album, a man in a blue shirt with a soft gaze and a heartfelt paean that begins: "Always, I did everything for love."

Meet Hugo Chávez, Venezuelan president, socialist revolutionary, globetrotting firebrand, Washington nemesis and now, in election campaign mode, a lover.

Newspaper adverts have done away with the beret, the red shirt and the martial rhetoric and introduced a poet, against a leafy background, with a "message of love for the people of my Venezuela".

In a 13-line poem, Mr Chávez says he became a painter, a student, a soldier, a president and a champion of the poor out of love, and asks to be re-elected in December. It concludes: "There is a lot more to do. I need more time. I need your vote. Your vote for love." The tone is designed to appeal to the numerous undecided voters to give him another term.

Since his election as president in 1998, Mr Chávez has won support from the poor by using oil revenues to fund Barrio Adentro, a programme of free clinics, Misión Robinson, a literacy programme, and subsidised state-run shops known as mercals.

Mr Chavez, who is running against Manuel Rosales, governor of the state of Zulia, is expected to win on December 3, and is reaching out to those unhappy with his ties to Cuba and anti-US rhetoric.

Opponents have mocked the poem. "For the love of God, please stop it!" said one blog. One critic responded with a poem accusing Mr Chávez of being an oppressor. "Some types of love just kill you."

Opposition newspapers published a riposte, signed Venezuela: "Using all your lies I fell in love/ But throughout these eight years/ I realised you deceived me/ Don't ask me for another opportunity/ You did not value my vote or my trust/ I will search for my own happiness/ Venezuela."

Ode to Venezuela

Always, I did everything for love/ For love towards the tree, the river, I became a painter/ For the love of knowledge, I left my dear hometown, to study/ For the love of sports, I became a baseball player/ For the love of the homeland, I became a soldier/ For the love of the people, I made myself president, you made me president/ I have governed for love/ There is a lot more to do. I need more time/ I need your vote. Your vote for love