BUENOS AIRES, Brazil (AFP): Venezuela's Hugo Chavez on Friday blasted the US President George W. Bush's Latin American tour, claiming it was an "imperial offensive" aimed at dividing popular movements.
"Bush is wolf in sheep's clothing," the Venezuelan president said at a news conference in Buenos Aires, where he was scheduled to attend an anti-Bush rally.
"He is coming to divide, to defraud, to slow down popular movements," the firebrand leftist leader said as Bush was set for talks with President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva in neighboring Brazil.
Chavez said Bush's five-nation trip was an attempt to push the US-backed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) project, which Venezuela has countered with its own proposal for regional integration.
"It is a new imperial offensive after we buried the FTAA at the Mar del Plata summit," Chavez said, in reference to the 2005 Summit of the Americas in Argentina that ultimately failed to agree on a free trade deal.
Chavez also ridiculed the aid schemes for Latin America Bush unveiled ahead of his trip.
"Bush says there will be 75 million dollars to resolve poverty; this is a ridiculous sum. We don't want handouts, we want a system of liberties, we have broken the chains of imperialism," Chavez said ahead of talks with Argentine President Nestor Kirchner.
Later in the day, Chavez was scheduled to headline an "anti-imperialist" rally at a 40,000-seat stadium in Buenos Aires. Kirchner, who maintains a careful balance in Argentina's relations with both oil-rich Venezuela and the United States, did not plan to attend the rally.
Bush arrived in Sao Paulo on Thursday night at the start of a trip that will also take him to Uruguay, Colombia, Mexico and Guatemala. | 
