Chavez is trying to redistribute the country's wealth, blunt U.S. influence and rid capitalism of what he calls its 'anti-values'

A day's drive west of the Orinoco Belt, where the largest liquid deposit of oil in the Western Hemisphere helped deliver $13.9 billion for Venezuelan social programs last year, a security guard, Efrain Rengifo, waited in line outside a grocery store run by the Venezuelan government. The line spilled out of the concrete-block store, the Super Mercal in Barinas, capital of a beef-producing region in the home state of President Hugo Chavez. Chavez is trying to redistribute the country's wealth, blunt U.S. influence and rid capitalism of what he calls its 'anti-values.' Socialism is Christ; capitalism is Judas, Chavez says. Rengifo stood with his wife in the April heat while street vendors hawked empanadas and iced cups of juice. He wore the red T-shirt of an education program set up by Chavez, who has defined socialism as 'attending to all of the needs of everyone.'