Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro gestures during a ceremony to swear in new community-based organisations in Caracas, Venezuela, on December 1. Leonardo Fernandez Viloria/Reuters

Nicolás Maduro believes that his predecessor and political father, the late Hugo Chávez , appeared before him in the form of a small bird and a butterfly. He also thinks that celebrating Christmas two months early – by presidential decree – helps “lift the spirits of Venezuelans.”

He confuses “gremlin” with “grinch,” invents words in Spanish, and often makes one linguistic slip after another. The decisions and statements of Venezuela’s president can be so eccentric that many Venezuelans and Latin Americans have a name for them: “maduradas.”

He has, however, proven for years that underestimating him c

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