 A top State Department official said Wednesday that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's UN speech deriding President George W. Bush is causing other Latin American leaders to distance themselves from Chavez. Undersecretary of State Nicholas Burns said the mercurial president's anti-Bush speech was a major reason the United Nations denied Venezuela a seat on the Security Council At the traditional opening of the General Assembly session in September, Chavez was hypercritical of Bush, even characterizing him as an imperialist "devil." |