Under the populist rule of President Hugo Chavez, first elected in 1998 and most recently re-elected to a six-year term in December 2006, Venezuela has undergone enormous political changes, with a new constitution and unicameral legislature, and even a new name for the country, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. U.S. officials and human rights organisations have expressed concerns about the deterioration of democratic institutions and threats to freedom of expression under President Chavez, who has survived several attempts to remove him from power. The government has benefited from the rise in world oil prices, which has sparked an economic boom and allowed Chavez to increase expenditures on social programs associated with his populist agenda. Since he was re-elected, Chavez has announced new measures to move the country toward socialism. His May 2007 closure of a popular Venezuelan television station (RCTV) that was critical of the government sparked student-led protests and international condemnation. The Chavez government's proposed constitutional reforms, subject to a referendum scheduled for December 2, 2007, include many amendments that have been controversial, such as the removal of presidential term limits and the government's ability to suspend certain constitutional rights during a state of emergency. The United States traditionally has had close relations with Venezuela, the fourth major supplier of foreign oil to the United States, but there has been friction in relations with the Chavez government. U.S. officials have expressed concerns about President Chavez's military arms purchases, his relations with such countries as Cuba and Iran, his efforts to export his brand of populism to other Latin American countries, and concerns about the state of democracy.

Under the rule of populist President Hugo Chavez, first elected in 1998 and reelected to a six-year term in December 2006, Venezuela has undergone enormous political changes, with a new constitution and unicameral legislature, and even a new name for the country, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Human rights organizations have expressed concerns about the deterioration of democratic institutions and threats to freedom of expression under the Chavez government. Venezuela is scheduled to hold its next presidential election on October 7, 2012, with President Chavez running against Henrique Capriles Radonski, the unified opposition candidate. While Chavez's continued popularity and use of state resources bode well for his reelection, high rates of crime, inflation, and other economic problems could erode his support. Until recently, a wildcard in the election was the health status of President Chavez, but at this juncture Chavez appears to have bounced back from two bouts of an undisclosed form of cancer. Looking ahead, however, Chavez's health status raises questions about Venezuela's political future.

U.S. attention to terrorism in Latin America intensified in the aftermath of the September 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, with an increase in bilateral and regional cooperation. In its 2010 Country Reports on Terrorism (issued in August 2011), the State Department maintained that terrorism in the region was primarily perpetrated by terrorist organizations in Colombia and by the remnants of radical leftist Andean groups. Overall, however, the report maintained that the threat of a transnational terrorist attack remained low for most countries in the hemisphere. With regard to concerns about drug trafficking-related violence in Mexico, the State Department terrorism report asserted that "there was no evidence of ties between Mexican criminal organizations and terrorist groups, nor that the criminal organizations had aims of political or territorial control, aside from seeking to protect and expand the impunity with which they conduct their criminal activity." Cuba has remained on the State Department's list of state sponsors of terrorism since 1982 pursuant to Section 6(j) of the Export Administration Act, which triggers a number of economic sanctions. Both Cuba and Venezuela are on the State Department's annual list of countries determined to be not cooperating fully with U.S. antiterrorism efforts pursuant to Section 40A of the Arms Export Control Act. U.S. officials have expressed concerns over the past several years about Venezuela's lack of cooperation on antiterrorism efforts, its relations with Iran, and potential support for Colombian terrorist groups.

Western Hemisphere countries supply the United States with almost 50% of its imported oil and petroleum products. Three countries in the hemisphere - Canada, Mexico, and Venezuela - account for the lion's share. Other significant oil producers in the region include Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil, Trinidad and Tobago, and Argentina.

In the post-cold war environment of shrinking budgets and uncertain threats, America can no longer politically, nor economically, afford strategies that rely on our traditional military strategy of annihilation and exhaustion. Furthermore, America's position as the single remaining superpower virtually guarantees that our vital interests will not be directly challenged. This means that the use of military force is becoming even more politicized. Despite military leaders' apparent adherence to Clausewitz's maxim that war is an extension of policy, they usually approach strategic planning as if the application of force can be planned separately from the political effort. The traditional American military brute-force strategy does not always meet our national needs in this new world order. Strategic Coercion offers one alternative to this brute-force approach. Simply stated, strategic coercion is the act of inducing or compelling an adversary to do something to which he is averse. It involves using force and threatening action to compel an adversary to cease his current activity, or coerce him to reverse actions already taken. Two contemporary theories of strategic coercion seem to offer promising alternatives to brute force. First, Robert Pape's Denial Theory is based on the assumption that states make decisions as if they are rational, unitary actors attempting to maximize the utility of their choices. Essentially, nations perform a cost-benefit evaluation to determine the best course of action. Theoretically, one may be able to coerce a target nation by raising the expected costs to a prohibitive level, but Pape advocates that this is generally ineffective in conventional conflicts. Instead, coercion requires that the target nation be denied the probability of achieving the sought-after benefits. Denial Theory proposes that the specific means for coercion is the opponent's military vulnerability: defeating an opponent's military strategy denies him the probability

Over the past two decades, the Latin America and Caribbean region has made enormous strides in terms of political and economic development. Twelve countries held successful elections for head of government in 2006, including a close election in Mexico. To date in 2007, the Bahamas held elections in May; elections are scheduled for Jamaica and Guatemala in September, Argentina in October, and are due to be called in Trinidad and Tobago by October. Although the region overall experienced an economic setback in 2002-2003, it has rebounded since 2004, most recently experiencing a growth rate over 5% in 2006. Despite this progress, several nations face considerable challenges that affect U.S. interests and policy in the region. These include persistent poverty, violent guerrilla conflicts, autocratic leaders, drug trafficking, increasing crime, and the rise of a new form of populism in several countries. This book provides an overview of U.S. relations with Latin America and the Caribbean.