Hugo Chávez

A number of Latin American leaders - even modern ones - have something of the macho street fighter about them. Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez, a former paratrooper, has been known to hurl vicious insults at political opponents (even, in one famous incident, the president of Colombia) and reacts to perceived slights from neighbours in the most manly way possible - by sending tanks to the borders. He has been called a bully, accused of "testosterone-pumped politics", and is wont to remind voters of his hombría, or manfulness.