Caracas - Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said he hopes the next government of the United States "respects" the sovereignty of the peoples of the Americas and brings about "true change" in the White House. "The only thing we aspire to in a new government in the United States is that it respects the dignity of the peoples of our Americas and respects the sovereignty of our peoples, of our governments," Chavez said at a Venezuelan oil field in the Orinoco Basin.
The controversial leader was accompanied by fellow left-wing populist Rafael Correa, president of Ecuador.
Chavez asked the next US government to "withdraw its tentacles" from Latin America.
"Let it withdraw from these lands, withdraw its tentacles from conspiracies, sabotages, perverse plans against our governments, against our economies, against our leaderships," he said.
Chavez said he hoped there is "true change in this regard from the next government of the United States."
Chavez has in the past has heaped various insults on US President US George W Bush and once called him "the devil" at the UN General Assembly in New York. He said he hoped the next US president is "a serious man with whom one can talk, who is not a drunkard, who respects the world and who is not a madman."
