CARACAS, Venezuela - Emboldened by a resounding re-election, President Hugo Chavez pledged to shake up Venezuela with a more radical version of socialism and forge a wider front against the United States in Latin America.

Opposition contender Manuel Rosales accepted defeat Sunday night, but promised to continue countering a leader whom he accuses of becoming increasingly authoritarian.

Touting his victory in a speech to thousands, Chavez said Venezuelans should expect an “expansion of the revolution” aimed at redistributing the country’s oil wealth among the poor.

“Long live the revolution!” Chavez shouted from the balcony of the presidential palace. “Venezuela is demonstrating that a new and better world is possible, and we are building it.” (more…)

Venezuelan intelligence agents have foiled a plot for a sniper attack on the opposition’s leading presidential candidate ahead of this Sunday’s election, President Hugo Chavez said Thursday.

Chavez said “fascist” militants had planned to use a rifle with a telescopic sight to shoot Manuel Rosales during a speech and then blame it on Chavez’s government in hopes of derailing Sunday’s vote.

“It was to say that Chavez sent them to kill him, and generate chaos,” Chavez told reporters at the presidential palace. (more…)

Venezuela’s president calling his U.S. counterpart Satan in a U.N. speech seemed a devilish gambit in the nations’ war of words — but Hugo Chavez says he was shooting from the hip.

Chavez earned headlines worldwide and sparked U.S. outrage in September with a sulfurous harangue at the U.N. General Assembly that branded George W. Bush Lucifer — and contributed to Venezuela’s loss in a bid for a Security Council seat.

“The devil thing, I didn’t have it on my mind. I swear, it occurred to me right there,” Chavez said at a news conference on Thursday. (more…)

Ecuador’s Supreme Electoral Tribunal is still counting the votes in the November 26 presidential runoff election but the results seem clear - with one-half of them tallied so far they show: the peoples’ candidate, Rafael Correa, 68% and the bible-toting billionaire banana tycoon oligarch who’s also the richest man in the country, Alvaro Noboa, - 32% - results consistent with two exit polls and an unofficial citizens election watchdog group, but without the completion of the suspended vote count in the Guayas province that’s a Noboa stronghold that when done should raise his percent of the total but nowhere near enough to close the current electoral gap against him.

The people have spoken, and the Washington-directed election-riggers failed for the second time this month to arrange for their man to steal what the people of Ecuador voted en masse to deny them - the same way it turned out on November 7 when Nicaraguans reelected Daniel Ortega despite strong opposition to his candidacy from Washington. Again the people won, and it’s a good omen for Hugo Chavez six days before Venezuelans vote on Sunday hoping to prove what the latest independent polls show - that he should win reelection impressively and get to serve another six year term as the country’s president. (more…)

The United States warned people to stockpile food, water and medicine in Venezuela in case a vote on Sunday sparks public disorder as anti-U.S. President Hugo Chavez seeks reelection.

In a warning to Americans living in Venezuela, which provides about 12 percent of U.S. oil imports, the U.S. Embassy said on Tuesday it had no information Venezuela would slip into lawlessness.

But it warned on its web site that the measures would be a sensible precaution in a polarized nation where politics often stokes violent street protests and strikes.

Chavez says he is running against the United States, which he accuses of trying to destabilize his government. (more…)

ABC News has now learned First Daughter Barbara Bush left Argentina late Sunday night, after being urged to cut short a birthday vacation trip by U.S. embassy officials concerned about the security of the Bush twins after a week of intense media coverage.

Her sister Jenna, however, plans to remain in Argentina until Dec. 6, sources told ABC News.

The First Daughters’ visit to Buenos Aires to celebrate their 25th birthday was marred when Barbara Bush’s purse and cell phone were stolen during a visit to the popular San Telmo marketplace, despite the presence of the Bush twins’ Secret Service detail. (more…)

Venezuelan President trounces “genocidal, immoral, sick, and corrupt elite” running United States

Hugo Chavez’ vow to “defeat the most powerful empire on earth” and “beat the devil” on December 3rd by achieving re-election in Venezuela is a bold and stark reminder that the fiery President has achieved what many dismiss as impossible - Chavez has derailed the plan for global dictatorship.

The Free Trade Area of the Americas, craved for so long by internationalists whose goal is to centralize global power into a pervasive world government structure with the U.S. as the token figurehead, was derailed last year when Chavez signed the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas, which effectively killed the FTAA. (more…)

Venezuela’s leftist President Hugo Chavez on Sunday promised hundreds of thousands of supporters he would win a resounding victory in his December 3 reelection bid he describes as a challenge to Washington.

The former soldier and self-styled revolutionary is favored in the polls to beat rival Manuel Rosales after building a solid political base through a social development campaign financed by oil revenues.

Chavez supporters flooded Caracas thoroughfares waving flags and banners, congregating in different parts of the downtown a day after Rosales sympathizers held a similar march to close his campaign in the capital city.

“We are confronting the devil, and we will hit a home run off the devil next Sunday,” said Chavez, who ruffled feathers in October by calling President Bush the devil in remarks at the United Nations. (more…)

Amid a growing barrage of front-page headlines, U.S. embassy officials “strongly suggested” President Bush’s twin daughters, Jenna and Barbara Bush, cut short their trip to Buenos Aires because of security issues, U.S. diplomatic and security sources tell ABC News.

But the girls have stayed on, celebrating their 25th birthday over the weekend and producing even more headlines about their activities.

Officials say the media coverage upstaged publicity plans for the new U.S. Ambassador Anthony Wayne, who had only recently arrived in the country. (more…)

The Bush administration has signed a multi-billion dollar free trade agreement with Colombia.

The pact comes despite warnings from Congress - which is now controlled by the opposition Democratic Party - that it has deep reservations over the deal.

Colombia’s finance minister said the move would benefit Colombia’s economy and its efforts to improve security.

The deal is America’s biggest in the Western Hemisphere since 1994’s North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta).

However, the deal has yet to win Congressional approval. (more…)

First Daughter Barbara Bush had her purse and cell phone stolen as she had dinner in a restaurant in Buenos Aires, Argentina, even though she was being guarded by a detail of Secret Service agents, according to law enforcement reports made available to ABC News.

It was not the only mishap on the two-week trip to Argentina by Barbara and her twin sister Jenna.

A Secret Service agent on the advance detail got into an “altercation” with someone after a night out and was badly beaten, according to the law enforcement reports. The Secret Service said today the incident was an attempted mugging that occurred while the agent was on his own time. The agent is doing fine. (more…)

Venezuela’s president continued his criticism of President Bush after the pro-Chávez legislature declared that the 9/11 attacks were `self-inflicted.’

CARACAS - When Venezuela’s leftist President Hugo Chávez called President Bush ‘’the devil'’ in a U.N. speech in September, many thought his ‘’anti-imperialist'’ rhetoric had reached rock bottom.

But fresh depths have since been plumbed. The Venezuelan government, to judge from recent events, officially regards Bush as a genocidal Nazi who arranged the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to justify aggression against other nations.

In a speech Tuesday, Chávez criticized the decision of an Iraqi court to sentence former dictator Saddam Hussein to the death penalty. ‘’If sentencing is to be done,'’ Chávez said, “the first one to be given the most severe sentence this planet has to offer should be the president of the United States, if we’re talking about genocidal presidents.'’ (more…)

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez slammed the Saddam Hussein death penalty and said it is U.S. President George W. Bush who should be sentenced to death.

“If sentencing is to be done,” said Chavez earlier this week, “the first one to be given the most severe sentence this planet has to offer should be the president of the United States, if we’re talking about genocidal presidents,” the Miami Herald reported Thursday. (more…)