Bush to Latin America: We care about you

updated 1:05 a.m. ET March 10, 2007

SAO PAULO, Brazil - Chalk up another round in the feud between President Bush and his chief South American tormentor, leftist President Hugo Chavez.

As Bush announced an alternative fuels agreement with Brazil on Friday, Chavez hurled taunts at the president from Buenos Aires, Argentina — about 1,000 miles southwest of here. Chavez called Bush’s travels an attempt to divide and confuse Latin American nations.

“The future belongs to us,” Chavez told reporters, adding “Oh, ho ho! Gringo go home!”

The Venezuelan leader is staging a tour of the region to rival Bush’s weeklong, five-country visit. Bush shrugged off the fresh attacks.

“I don’t think America gets enough credit for trying to help improve people’s lives,” Bush said at a joint news conference with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. “My trip is to explain as clearly as I can that our nation is generous and compassionate.”

Leader who shall not be named
The last time Bush was in South America, 16 months ago, Chavez rallied thousands of protesters against the U.S. leader’s visit. In October, Chavez referred to Bush as “the devil” in his speech at a U.N. General Assembly attended by Bush and other world leaders.

This time, their sparring was more from afar — but no less heated.

“I believe the chief objective of the Bush trip is to try to scrub clean the face of the (U.S.) empire in Latin America. But it’s too late,” Chavez said in a television interview in Buenos Aires, a prelude to a soccer-stadium rally Friday night.

“That may be what people say, but it’s certainly not what the facts bear out,” Bush said, careful never to use Chavez’ name and give the leftist leader more stature than he’s already amassed.

The two were even closer later on Friday, when Chavez addressed an “anti-imperialist” rally at the soccer stadium in Buenos Aires while Bush arrived in Montevideo, Uruguay, across the River Plate.

Chavez is using his country’s vast oil wealth to reach out to ordinary Latin Americans and to court other leftist leaders.

Bush, meanwhile, noted that since he took office, U.S. aid to Latin America has doubled to $1.6 billion last year.

Cherry-picking aid numbers?
Some Latin American critics say Bush’s claim is misleading because it is based on 2001 as the starting point, and U.S. aid had dipped sharply that year, setting an artificially low benchmark.

The Bush administration sees the leftist Silva as a counterbalance to Chavez for influence in the region. As a sign of his standing, Bush has invited Silva to visit the U.S. presidential retreat at Camp David, Md., on March 31.

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