Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is in a new row with the Bush administration over his scheduled visit to the UN General Assembly next week. Speaking in Havana Thursday, Chavez said US officials were denying visas to members of his security detail and medical staff. But he vowed to still make the trip.

• Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez: “I hope to see [Spain’s Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero] in New York but now the gringos (U.S.) don’t want me to go, here let me tell you, they denied visas for my security and my doctors. They don’t want my advance party in New York but I am going even if I have to go alone, with Fidel like Quixote, with Quixote on horseback.”