Hello Jobe :-) Venezuala, with its charismatic leader in Hugo Chavez, is definitely becoming more influential with lots of world leaders, around the globe. One needs only to look at Chavez's recent activities in making contact and speaking with a large array of countries receptive to him around the globe. Venezuala is currently, the number 4 producer of US imported oil, and that alone as Rick suggest, brings them power and influence, since that comodity is utterly vital, and runs our US infrastucture. Venezuala is solidifiying ties with China. Hugo Chavez is buying many huge oil tankers, so he can send more and more of his Black Gold to China, and not to the US. The latin american countries as a whole, are coming together in cooperation, being led in large part by Hugo Chavez's efforts, to align themselves against US Hegenomy. Iran and Venezuala are forging new ties. Russia and China who depend greatly on Iranian oil exports have shown consistently that they are not inclined to back the US interest in imposing sanctions on Iran, with all important oil as a resource, tying the interest of these parties, closer and closer together. Energy is power, and Venezuala has lots of it. Hugo Chavez is a leader, that is working hard to galvanize sentiments in a whole host of countries for the purpose of developing resistance to the kinds of pre-emptive moves Bush and his administration have made since 9-11. The United States main single ally Tony Blair, will be leaving his office next year, and I wouldn't count on his predessessor as being so supporting of the kind of errant world policy that Tony and Bush were privy to in thier time. Tony Blair is being pushed out early, because the general public in England, has developed a very negative view of his support of Bushes policies. So what sizeable country will be standing by the US, to support any further pre-emptive wars, or campaigns to occupy others terrritories for the purpose of controlling thier energy supplies, by completely un-ethical means, maybe Australia. Chavez, and therefore Venezuala are gaining influence with each passing day. The US, with dwindling energy sources, and a recent track record of looking to the rest of the world like a super power, that just pushes many other countries around, and threatens militarily those that are " proposed " as a future threat, is losing its once dominate influence. Just this week, Pakistan's leader said in a 60 minutes interview that he was told by Mr Armitage, a US political official that Pakistan better support the US efforts to attack Afganistan, right after 9-11, or they ( the Bush Administration ) would bomb Pakistan " Back To The Stone Age ". So other world leaders watch these realizations unfold, and continue to lose respect for US interest and policy. The US politicians will more and more, be compelled to listen to the views and interest of other world powers, who,s energy resources will be the bargaining chips, which they will use to extract various adjustments in future US world policy. These same leaders also are not blind to the devestation Bushe's recent illegal pre-emptive wars has caused, and see clearly that the US military is stretched to the limit, in Iraq and afganistan, being confronted with increased attacks in both countries, by those parties that now realize that the US military is after all, is not invincible. As too whether Hugo Chavez treats all the Venezualan people with complete dignity, that is not an area of study that I have really looked in too, because I only have so much time, and am concentrating my efforts in other areas. If I had a choice of being led by a man like Bush, or a man like Chavez, I would take my chances with the later.