While Bush and Lula are having an ethanol flavored lovefest, Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez is starting a countertour which he began today in Argentina.

“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 of recent Bush pledges of aid. “It seems he’s just now discovered that poverty exists in the region.”

Tonight Chavez will lead a rally in a soccer stadium and he promises it will be confrontational. At the same time Bush will be just across the River Plate in Uruguay. In Argentina, Chavez is being backed by the well respected Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo
who can hardly forget the U.S. support of military regimes that “disappeared” their loved ones.

Via / Yahoo News