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Chavez mocks 'Comrade Bush'

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez mocked George W. Bush as a "comrade" on Wednesday, saying the US president was a hard-line leftist for his government's intervention in major private banks in the US financial crisis.

Chavez, who calls capitalism an evil and ex-Cuban leader Fidel Castro his mentor, ridiculed Bush for his plan for the federal government to take equity in American banks despite the US right-wing's criticism of Venezuelan nationalizations.