Undaunted by stiff U.S. opposition, President Hugo Chavez has reasserted the role of the state in the Venezuelan economy. He has developed elaborate social programs to advance his Bolivarian, anti-American, anti-neoliberal crusade and has forged strong alliances with established U.S. adversaries. The popularity of Chavez’s economic populism and rhetoric throughout Latin America exposes the need to redress the perception that the United States is out of touch with the popular mood among the region’s poor.