ing instability anywhere. Latin America and the Caribbean are at peace — unlike the Middle East, where we have created instability up the Yazoo.

Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's president — whom the Bush administration despises because he won't be its puppet — is hugely popular in Venezuela and in Latin America. And he's popular with me. I keep doing research on the guy, and I've yet to hear or read of him saying anything that any decent American could disagree with.

I watched a special about the recall election that he won overwhelmingly, and in his speech to the crowd afterward he said he wanted to "extend the hand of friendship to our brothers and sisters in the opposition so we can work together to make a better Venezuela." No vituperation, no questioning anyone's patriotism. In his hour-long speech at the big economic conference where President Bush and his scheme for a new trade agreement bombed, Chavez didn't even mention the U.S.

It goes without saying that the CIA probably had a hand in the recall election, which was an utter failure. So far, all the criticism I've read of Chavez comes either from the Bush administration or from the Venezuelans who were in the catbird seat before Chavez was elected. Bush doesn't like him because he won't sell out his country to the multinationals, and members of the former regime don't like him because he upset their gravy train.

Hugo Chavez is a socialist. So are most of our European allies. Venezuela isn't the only country to abandon the U.S. version of capitalism (let our multinational corporations exploit your people and your resources while we put you deep in debt with loans you can never repay so we can make sure you do our bidding). In fact, most of the Latin American countries are abandoning this form of no-win capitalism.

To understand Chavez, you have to understand the traditional structure of most Latin American countries. A very few rich families, sometimes less than 20, own virtually all of the land and the resources in many of these countries. The majority of the population is poor and powerless. Instead of sending his poor to the U.S. — as Bush's millionaire buddy, Mexico's Vicente Fox, does — Chavez is trying to use the nation's oil riches to bring them housing, medical care and education. The only wars he is waging are those on poverty and illiteracy.

The reason the Bush family doesn't like Chavez is because it doesn't give a damn about the poor in the U.S., much less the poor in Venezuela. It likes to keep the cozy relationship between our rich families and their rich families intact.

The U.S. is showing itself to be an enemy of Chavez. Besides all the unfounded public remarks, we have denied him spare parts for airplanes we sold him, we just prevented a Brazilian company from selling him aircraft trainers, and there is no doubt in my mind that the CIA is funding the opposition. The CIA has a talent for wasting money on losers.

Chavez, however, won't be pushed around. He has a wonderful sense of humor. You won't keep your contracts, he says, so we'll buy from the Russians or the Chinese. Maybe we'll even sell these F-16s to the Chinese or the Russians, he said with a big laugh.

If you weed through the propaganda, you'll find that Chavez is one of the good guys in this world, and for that reason I worry that some of our bad guys may kill him. In the meantime, viva Chavez.