Chavez's talk show marathon cancelled

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez had promised a four-day marathon edition of his widely watched weekly television talkshow, but unspecified technical problems threw the plans awry this weekend.

In a three-line statement, the information ministry said Sunday's Alo Presidente programme had been canceled for technical reasons. Saturday's show was called off without explanation.

To mark its 10 years on air, Chavez last week announced an extended edition of the programme he frequently uses to criticize the United States and announce major policies like nationalisations in South America's top oil exporter. He planned to do one or two hours-long broadcasts a day.

The leftist began on Thursday, speaking for about eight hours in two installments and threatening to punish a critical private TV station.

He also chatted to teens about sex education, talked about problems with his weight and called his friend and mentor, Cuba's former leader Fidel Castro, "Our father who art in Havana."

The next day he challenged a group of right-wing intellectuals, including Peruvian writer Mario Vargas Llosa, to debate ideas on Saturday's show, but the broadcast never materialized.

A member of the president's press team said they had waited on the show's set until late afternoon without learning why it had been pulled.

Chavez was expected to transmit Sunday's show in the company of Bolivian President Evo Morales, before he travels to El Salvador for the inauguration of its new left-wing president, Mauricio Funes.