If Barack Obama was in fact a socialist, as right wing ideologues suggested back in October, he probably would have taken a more conicliatory tone toward Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez upon entering office. Rather than reaching out to Chavez, Obama, two days before he was inaugurated, told the Spanish language Unavision channel that, ?We need to be firm when we see the news that Venezuela is exporting terrorist activities or supporting malicious entities like the FARC." "This creates problems," he went on, "that are not acceptable," adding that Chavez ?has been a force that has hindered progress in the region.? More recently, Dennis Blair, the new Director of National Intelligence identified Venezuela as one of the greatest global threats to US security. So although there is hope, even among Latin American leaders, that the new administration will change US policy in the region, there are few indicators to suggest that it will. The first big test of the new administration will come in April when Obama travels to Trinidad for the Summit of the Americas. Greg Grandin, the author of Empire's Workshop, Eva Golinger, a Venezuelan-American attorney and the author of Bush Versus Chavez: Washington's War on Venezuela, Sujatha Fernandes, a professor of Sociology at Queens College, and Jim Shultz, founder and director of the Democracy Center discuss the future of US policy in the region. Less