World's Most Dangerous Leaders

These four pose the greatest threat to America.

Hugo Chávez

Any roll call of the world's despots is depressingly long. But only a handful of leaders threaten the security of countries well beyond their borders. Venezuela's president, Hugo Chávez, is the latest ruler to emerge from this pack. Rabidly anti-American, Chávez is intent on stirring up trouble -- and he's getting the help of some menacing thugs he counts as friends.

Last September, Americans got a surreal introduction to Hugo Chávez. In an address before the UN General Assembly in New York, Venezuela's president launched into a tirade against the previous day's speaker, George W. Bush. "Yesterday," he intoned, "the devil came here. Right here." He made the sign of the cross, then added, "And it smells of sulfur still today." Many of the diplomats laughed and applauded. Chávez went on to charge that the United States "doesn't want peace" and denounced its "system of exploitation, of pillage, of hegemony through war."

His rant made headlines, but it was hardly news to those who have followed Chávez through the years. In other venues, he's referred to Bush as a drunkard and a terrorist, and not long ago derided Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as an illiterate and sexually frustrated woman.

While Chávez's rhetoric is often odious and his behavior clownish, we can't afford to ignore him. Secretary Rice says Chávez is "one of the most dangerous men in the world." His goals are a direct challenge to the United States and its allies: to forge alliances with America's foes, including the world's most unsavory regimes and terrorist groups; to undermine U.S influence by leading an anti-American coalition of countries; to spread oil wealth throughout the region to buy support and promote leftist governments; and to build an outsize military, supposedly to resist an American invasion. "He has this tremendous drive for power, and he's looking to oppose the U.S. agenda in Latin America and throughout the world," says Michael Shifter, vice president of the nonpartisan organization Inter-American Dialogue.

Chávez was elected Venezuela's president in December 1998 -- after failing to topple the government six years earlier. In short order, he eliminated the Venezuelan Senate and stacked the Supreme Court with loyal "Chávistas." Last winter, after reelection to another six-year term, he declared he would rule by decree for 18 months, not subject to the approval of legislators in the National Assembly. "This is what dictators do," says Roger Noriega, former Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs. "They systematically consolidate power."

And wielding that power, Chávez is proving more and more of a menace to the world, especially the United States. Oil is his chief weapon. Fourteen percent of America's imported oil comes from Venezuela, which sits atop the most massive oil fields outside the Middle East. If that supply were cut off, as Chávez has often threatened, the U.S. economy would suffer a blow as America scrambled to make up for the loss of about one and a half million barrels of oil a day.

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