JOHN YDSTIE, Host:
This is MORNING EDITION from NPR News. I'm John Ydstie.
REN, Host:
NPR's Julie McCarthy reports.
(SOUNDBITE OF CHANTING)
JULIE MCCARTHY: Chavez accuses the Bush administration of plotting to oust him, a charge the U.S. routinely denies. But Chavez is never more eased with his audience as when he's raising the specter of Washington. His verbal broadsides at the Bush White House are part crowd-pleasing antic, part foreign policy. He's made that anti- U.S. government policy the centerpiece of his re-election bid.
HUGO CHAVEZ: (Speaking foreign language)
MCCARTHY: To raucous cheers, he says, this election marks the next phase of his Bolivarian revolution, named for the independence leader, Simon Bolivar. And Chavez vows Venezuela will be remade, beginning in 2007 through 2021.
CHAVEZ: (Speaking foreign language)
MCCARTHY: Chavez supporter Gustavo Odolfo Guardio-Castillo(ph).
GUSTAVO ODOLFO GUARDIO: (Speaking foreign language)
MCCARTHY: Opposition candidate, Manuel Rosales, condemns what he calls Chavez's authoritarian tendencies. He told the finale of his campaign this Saturday.
(SOUNDBITE OF VENEZUELAN MUSIC)
MANUEL ROSALES: (Speaking foreign language)
MCCARTHY: Julie McCarthy, NPR News, Caracas. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
