Castro-Chavez ping.
Chavez is a master at blending what we traditionally consider left wing and right wing politics into a single brew. Most of us have always recognized that they were but two sides of a single coin, but Chavez combines them effectively.
A key part of his appeal is trans-latin nationalism. Latin America's default political philosophy is a kind of populism that tends easily toward leftist solutions, but his anti-americanism inspires nationalist pride that drives a lot of his popularity. It started as Venezuelan nationalism but he has effectively reached out to the rest of the region, his agents have worked with Salvadoran officers, Ecuadorian officers, Peruvian officers, and so on, and he has blended Cubans into the mix.
Nationalism reaches where simple marxism can't, and together they are a heady mixture. Together they are tough competition for us because on a strictly philosophical plain, we can compete with marxism. But if classic liberalism, what Chavez calls "neo-liberalism", is seen as alien, it is seen as domination by the Americans, nationalism has done its work, preventing debate from ever taking place.
He is pushing the idea that Colombia, under attack by narco-marxism, is an American peon for not surrendering to them. He pushes the idea that coca is authentic to Bolivian culture, and that hydrocarbons will enslave them to the Americans, thus using nationalism to shut off energy competition and to isolate the Colombians at the same time.