The highly-regarded author of the first biography of Hugo Chavez brings his considerable expertise to assess the left-leaning regimes in South America. In this insightful and timely examination, Nikolas Kozloff discusses the hot-button issues of energy integration, free trade agendas, culture wars and South America's emerging role as a new political bloc, and how these tectonic political shifts will affect the United States. As Venezuela opposes U.S. militarization in the Andes and Bolivia fights a U.S.-fueled drug war, Kozloff looks to the future and what the U.S. must do to maintain these vital economic and political allies.