Posted by Mark Silva at 10:25 am CDT and updated at 5:57 pm CDT

President Bush doesn’t often dabble in Latin American politics, but when he does, he jumps right in. This morning, during a visit to Omaha to tout immigration reform, he lamented that Venezuela’s leader is doing “a great disservice’’ to his country. And Bush named his own favorite food: cheese enchiladas.

This should fan the flames of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s own campaign against the Bush administration. Chavez, who has accused the United States of trying to oust him, is arming and training a citizen militia with Russian assault weapons to prepare for that day when he predicts the U.S. will invade.

“I am a little worried about your country,’’ Bush told a woman from Venezuela this morning as he met with a circle of immigrants. The woman, Lourdes Secola, came to the U.S. 25 years ago and works in dentistry. Bush told her: “I’m worried about it, a little worried about it. I think it’ll be okay. But it's going to take a while.’’

Then the American president said this of the Venezuelan president, according to the pool reporter traveling with Bush: "Sometimes leaders show up who do a great disservice to the traditions and people of a country."

Chavez has ordered thousands of Kalashnikov assault rifles from Russia, with a shipment of 30,000 expected next week and a total of 100,000 by year’s end.

“Venezuelans will be able to defend every street, every hill, and every house," Chavez has said.

The rifle sale is one of several deals that Caracas has cut with Moscow. Venezuela, already using Russian military transport helicopters, has promised to buy SU-35 fighter jets since the U.S. has refused to modernized Venezuela’s old fleet of F-16s. Washington banned arms sales to Venezuela in May.

Chavez has offered his fleet of 21 aging F-16s to any country that wants them, including Iran – “That could be,’’ he said in a recent speech. “The Sukhoi (aircraft) are 100 times better than the F-16s,’’ Chavez added. “We will sell those planes to whomever we want… We’ll give them to whomever we wish.’’

Bush will play host to a more amenable South American leader this week, when he meets with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet at the White House on Thursday. The U.S. has cultivated increasingly closer ties with Chile since its transition to democratically elected governments after the reign of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Bush met with Bachelet’s predecessor in Santiago two years ago.

Bush also will welcome President Alvaro Uribe of Colombia to the White House on June 14. Uribe, who recently won reelection with a landslide victory over his leftist opponent, may be Chavez's next-door neighbor, but he has much more in common with the U.S. and has become an ally in wars against drug and terrorism. Uribe sought and won a second term after a constitutional amendment allowing it.

Arriving at a Catholic charity in Omaha, Bush passed some anti-war protesters as well as immigration protesters toting signs: “No amnesty for illegals.’’ Bush maintains his plan for “temporary workers,’’ enabling many of the millions of undocumented immigrants in the U.S. to remain and work if they pay fines and back taxes is not amnesty. But opponents insist it is and vow to block it.

Bush asked the people joining him at the Juan Diego Center this morning where they had come from and what they do. He prompted some with questions in Spanish, and he asked them to imagine a similar round table in the early 1900s. “I suspect you’d find a table with Italians, Germans and others escaping oppression.’’

Bush also explained a few other things in Omaha. “You think my hair is gray because I’m president?’’ Bush said. “No, my hair is gray because of teenage daughters.’’ And the president allowed that his favorite food is cheese enchiladas.