Nowadays few political leaders dare describe themselves as socialist. And it is a brave Latin American leader who stands up to America. As one regional politician put it "Poor Latin America - so far from God but so close to the United States". So I was intrigued last week to meet the Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez.

Diane Abbott

He was in London for a whistle stop visit; on his way from a summit in Vienna between the EU, Latin American and Caribbean countries. He did not disappoint. Chavez is mixed race, thick set, beautifully turned out and very charismatic. He speaks at Castro-style length.

At the first rally held in his honour in London his speech lasted nearly four hours - to the amazement of some of his English audience. But his rhetoric sweeps you along. You can see how he has captivated the masses of Venezuela.

And it is not the just the poor of his own country that love Chavez. He is extremely popular in Latin America. They love his style of standing up to Uncle Sam. "In some places he is even more popular than that country's own president," says Larry Birns, the head of the Washington-based Council of Hemispheric Affairs. But one place where Chavez is deeply unpopular is Washington.

The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, has accused Chavez of leading a "Latin American brand of populism that has taken countries down the drain". She described Venezuela's close relationship with Cuba as "particularly dangerous".

America's dilemma when it comes to Chavez is that, although they dislike his politics, they are very dependent on his oil. Venezuela is the fourth largest oil producer in the world. Its oil reserves are vast - the largest in the Americas - and it has the largest proven gas reserves in Latin America.

The Middle East is in turmoil (largely as a result of America's own policies) and other energy producers like Nigeria and the former Soviet Union have their own problems. So Venezuela is of the utmost strategic importance to the United States; both in terms of energy reserves and security of supply.

Diane Abbott poses with Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez for a photograph during his recent whistle stop in London.

Chavez was first elected in 1998, sweeping away the old Venezuelan elites. He has taken advantage of a steep rise in oil prices to fund a range of anti-poverty programmes, including land reform; a literacy drive; health clinics in slum districts; aid to single mothers; free treatment to HIV/Aids sufferers; special tuition for early school leavers; evening classes for adults and subsidised food for the poor.

Under Chavez, Venezuela now has the lowest infant mortality rate in South America. He has also taken a much more strategic approach to Venezuela' energy production.

The oil minister, Rafael Ramirez, says "It was an absurd situation where for the past 100 years of oil production here in Venezuela we did not ship a single barrel of petroleum to the Caribbean, Brazil, Argentina or Uruguay. But now with the government of President Chavez, we have set up a system of shipping cheap oil to other Latin American countries in return for agricultural and industrial products".

And Chavez is looking to develop his natural gas reserves, which he believes may eventually supplant oil as the country's main export. So he is spearheading a mammoth $20 billion project to build a gas pipeline from Venezuela in the north to Patagonia at the southern tip of South America.

Chavez has also spent some of his oil riches abroad. He made offers of millions of dollars of aid for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and cheap heating oil for poor families in Boston and New York.

But the most worrying thing for America is that Chavez appears to be part of a new wave of left-wing or centrist politicians who are winning elections in Latin America. They include the populist Lula in Brazil and, in Bolivia, Evo Morales, who has recently announced the nationalisation of his country's oil and gas industry.

In the Middle East, George Bush claims to be against military dictators and in favour of democracy. But an outbreak of actual democracy in Latin America is making him very nervous.

In 2002, a group of dissident generals backed by opposition media tycoons and the Venezuelan elites launched a coup against Chavez. The coup collapsed when hundreds of thousands of poor Venezuelans took to the streets to demand the release of their hero. America certainly knew about the coup in advance and the suspicion is that they funded it.

In 2005, Pat Robertson, a right-wing television evangelist (and former presidential candidate) who is very close to neo-conservative circles in Washington, called for the assassination of Chavez. George Bush was quick to distance himself from this. But the remarks may point to the thinking in certain circles in Washington. Even my own leader, Tony Blair, always quick to echo George Bush's thinking, surprised Labour MPs by making negative remarks about Chavez in Parliament recently.

But so far Chavez has survived the coup attempts and torrents of CIA-funded propaganda. He is constantly accused of being a dictator. But, as he points out, he has held and won eight elections. And all of them have been certified by outside observers as free and fair. A political wind of change is blowing across Latin America; Chavez seems to personify it.

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