The Authoritarian Venezuelan leader, Hugo Chavez has been causing some spit-takes with the new national phone, the “Vergatorio.” Why is this a big deal?  The first two syllables in Spanish are slang for penis. The last three syllables? It’s not really clear, because the word altogether doesn’t seem to mean anything. Originally blogs and news sources were reporting that the word meant penis when apparently they didn’t have access to any online Spanish-English dictionaries. The word has been newly invented and supposedly means “excellent.” Think of it like the Integra, but for a mobile phone.

Chavez denounced the criticism of the name on his TV show saying that detractors were ignorant and that it means no such thing.

The phone is a device which is being marketed at $15 and is meant to give mobile phone access to people who couldn’t normally afford it. This is just one of the small steps Chavez has been taking in his so-called “Socialist Revolution.”

The mobile phone is planned to be manufactured for export by 2011 after all local demand for the device has been satisfied.