Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez called his re-election a defeat for George W. Bush, vowing to use his nation’s oil wealth to expand social welfare programs and challenge U.S. interests across Latin America. His victory sets the stage for Chavez to take on the role as the region’s pre-eminent anti-U.S. voice from the ailing Cuban President Fidel Castro, his friend and mentor. With record revenue pouring into Venezuela from the sale of oil, its top export, Chavez is subsidizing crude for Cuba and helping promote anti-free trade policies in countries such as Bolivia and Ecuador. ‘Chavez recognizes that oil is a resource of diplomatic power,” said Daniel Hellinger, a professor of political science at Webster University in St. Louis and author of several books about Chavez. “Chavez has assumed the role of Fidel Castro in that he can say things that other leaders in Latin America are afraid to say.” Chavez, the 52-year-old former lieutenant colonel who calls Bush the `’Devil,” won 61 percent of the vote in yesterday’s election with most ballots counted, the national electoral council said. The election gives Chavez six more years in office. He first won election in 1998 then again in […]