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He may not have made the axis of evil, but Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's President, is unlikely to be invited to spend a weekend at George W. Bush's Texas ranch anytime soon.
Indeed news, this month, that Chavez plans to buy at least five Russian submarines carries a whiff of the tensions that led to the 1962 Cuban crisis except that this time it's been downgraded to a regional tiff rather than a superpower nuclear standoff.
Nonetheless, the deal will intensify US concerns it has failed in corralling a loose cannon who threatens to upset long-standing American influence in an energy rich region.
The submarine deal follows several dramatic gestures, since Chavez announced in January he would rule by decree for 18 months.
In April he pulled out of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, paying back billions of dollars in foreign debt.
In May he closed Radio Caracas Television, a popular TV channel fiercely critical of him.
Nor does it help that Venezuela allows left-wing guerrillas to regroup on its territory in their long war with Colombia, America's closest regional ally. The Caracas-Washington chill is deepened by America's refusal to extradite Luis Posada Carriles, an elderly ex-CIA asset and naturalised Venezuelan citizen, wanted for the 1976 bombing of a Venezuelan plane that killed 73 people.
But it is Chavez's seizure of operational control over several major oil fields - Venezuela is one of the top four US suppliers, with Canada, Saudi Arabia and Mexico - and threats he may not compensate foreign companies, that has really raised temperatures in Washington.
On May Day Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), the state oil company, backed by troops, took over four multibillion-dollar projects in the Orinoco basin financed by the American companies Chevron, Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips; France's Total, Britain's BP and Norway's Statoil.
The move gives Venezuela control over 60 per cent of its oil industry.
"Today, we are ending this perverse era," thundered Chavez, addressing oil workers and troops as he stood in front of banners extolling socialism and "oil sovereignty".
"We have buried this policy of the opening up of our oil that was nothing more than an attempt to take away from Venezuelans their most powerful and biggest natural resource."
As the June 26 handover deadline loomed, foreign companies feared they could lose $30 billion ($39 billion) of investments, a replay of events in Bolivia last year when Chavez's ally President Evo Morales used the Army to seize foreign-run gas fields.
The prospect of Venezuela flexing its military muscle, backed by billions of petro-dollars, does not make Washington happy. Nor does Chavez's warm relationship with Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, an entente that underscores that Venezuela is willingly to push the envelope.
Chavez's moves presage a seismic shift south of the border.
"The US is no longer a global superpower," says Pratap Chatterjee, who runs Corpwatch USA. "The powers have fundamentally realigned. Oil is an increasingly precious and expensive commodity - especially with the rise of India and China - so whoever has oil will call the tunes."
It may not be that clear-cut. But imperial overreach by the Bush Administration, and the Iraq debacle, have created a power vacuum that Chavez, among others, is exploiting.
The Venezuela strongman, who seems to fancy himself as Castro's successor, has big plans, casting himself as a populist leader of a revolution, that, fuelled by petro-dollars, will make Venezuela the linchpin of a rejuvenated continent with elected left-wing governments in Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, and Argentina.
It is a volatile scenario to which the US has only recently woken up.
"I think the Administration has been distracted by the Middle East," says Michael Shifter, an analyst with Inter American Dialogue, a Washington policy group.
"And [it is] completely at a loss on how to respond to Chavez. The US response has been totally reactive. There's been very little real strategy or framework on how to deal with him."
The US has tried to counter Chavez's aggressive socialism by a "year of engagement" with Latin America, starting in February, but many wonder if it is too little, too late.
"I think the US mindset has to catch up with the realities in Latin America," says Shifter. "The US can no longer take the region for granted. It has to deal with Latin American countries as it deals with other partners in the world."
But while other nations enjoy Chavez's Yankee bashing, they are wary of his radical notion of a continent allied against the US - funded by a "Bank of the South," Chavez's version of the World Bank - and especially his vision of himself as a regional leader.
Not everyone wants to play confrontational politics. Thus, Brazil, which has long viewed itself as the hemisphere's chief player, is wary.
"Brazil wants it both ways," says Shifter. "President Luiz Inacio Lula doesn't want to antagonise Chavez. But Brazil wants to be a regional power. Which means good relations with the US. So Brazil is trying to straddle both sides."
It is a policy that calls for a subtlety missing from Chavez's Bush-baiting. The key factor is while Latin Americans don't look to the US for leadership, nor do they look to Venezuela.
There is also concern over Chavez's economic instincts. Fuelled by oil dollars and $36 billion in reserves, Venezuela's economy is growing at 10 per cent a year. But there are fears high public spending, an 18.4 per cent inflation rate, and sporadic food shortages, may derail growth.
Meanwhile, as Big Oil contemplates the revolution, serious corporate calculations are being made.
"In the short term there's still money to be made,"says Shifter. "As long as that's the case I think most companies will, however grudgingly, accommodate Venezuela's terms."
So far Chavez has done well. Venezuela's oil shipments to the US fell 6 per cent in the first four months of 2007, as oil went to China and India. But signs of overreach are evident in his media censorship and unwillingness to share power. "He makes a lot of promises," says Shifter. "And anyone who stands up to Chavez is liable to be seen as a US tool."
