Hugo!

Hard to argue his point, actually.

"Bush is to the left of me now," Mr Chavez told an audience of international intellectuals debating the benefits of socialism. "

Comrade Bush announced he will buy shares in private banks."

Mr Chavez, who has insulted Bush in the past as a drunkard or the devil, called him clueless.

He accused him of simply parroting the words of his aides without understanding the new policies that rely on heavy state intervention.

"I am convinced he has got no idea what's going on," said Mr Chavez, who has nationalised swaths of the OPEC nation's economy in recent years and is in negotiations to take over a Spanish bank in Venezuela.