Chavez goes for lifetime power

Here's the Register's editorial on Venezuela's Hugo Chavez going for constitutional changes that will give him even more power and the opportunity to be dictator for life, like his hero Castro. The editorial notes that Sean Penn was in Venezuela recently cozying up to Chavez, announcing he had discovered wonderful things. Odd. I can certainly understand being opposed to the Iraq war and the Bush administration and deeply disillusioned about America (though why it is so common among those the capitalist system has rewarded so richly is a bit of a mystery -- guilt?). But why this leads to endorsing any overseas thug who spouts anti-American slogans is utterly baffling to me. Are people so blinded by ideology that they can't see that Castro and Chavez -- and Lenin and Stalin before them (as well as Hitler) are thugs and tyrants, not saviors of their people?