The U.S.' weapon of choice is bilateral trade pacts which hope to immunize nation's from falling prey to populist appeals to socialist economic polices. On the other side, Chavez's weapon is energy - to pork barrel to win political loyalty, and as a cutoff weapon for the disloyal. With the new Bolivian president, Evo Morales, nationalization of the country's oil and gas reserves, he's shown the powerful potential of the latter. But at the same time that Chavez is brandishing his energy weapon, regional blocs are breaking up and trade pacts are being signed, each one a symbolic rejection of Chavez.

Both trends are accelerating, so cross currents of the two forces is why events seem so momentous right now. It's like the world is being remade. An energy knife is going down the center of South America while the states on the edges are breaking off and signing trade pacts with the U.S.

The irony is - Chavez wants a stronger state; Bush wants a stronger independent citizenry. Yet Bush negotiates with states to get that citizen empowerment while Chavez makes populist appeals to citizens over the heads of their governments to ultimately get his own personal power.