委內瑞拉率拉丁美洲政治之先，1999年向左轉，2005 年首度宣告其建設綱領是「二十一世紀社會主義」，智利之後，議會社會主義再次出現；古巴之外，拉美社會主義重新得到發展的機會。本文首先勾勒拉美的六十年左翼政權梗概，尤其是查維茲崛起後迄今的拉美路徑。其次，作者鋪陳這些國家的表現，凸顯最能彰顯社會主義特徵的經濟成果之分配及其成長，古巴而特別是委內瑞拉得到較多介紹與討論， 並對委內瑞拉在草根參與政治及其國際視野與實踐，亦予重點提示， 藉以表明左翼的建設並不只是以經濟為斷。惟古、委與拉美左翼所突出的社會主義路線，僅只是資本主義海洋的島嶼，拉美進步政權的在野保守集團多有美國作為奧援，致使拉美左翼的發展除了必須面對選舉考驗，另得防範與還擊內外右翼路線的肆意攻訐與破壞，特別是委內瑞拉反對勢力與傳媒（曾有的密切）結合程度，世所罕見。就此理解，紐約時報為主的海外傳媒對委內瑞拉的再現，不只涉及傳媒報導真實或評論公正與否，亦且展現了跨國力量對於新興社會主義的火苗之態度。文末總結並提問中國與委內瑞拉等國的關係。

With Hugo Chavez’s winning the Presidential election in late 1998, Venezuela made the first left-turn politics in Latin America and has since joined by many a countries in this region. In 2005 Chavez proclaimed that ‘21st-century socialism’ is the ideal guiding his politics. For the first time after Chile’s coup, ‘socialism’ is again put back into the political agenda and has created new spaces for Latin Americans to develop her visions of socialism in addition to Cuba’s. Having outlined the checkered path that Ibero-American socialists have undergone during the past six decades, this essay turns to evaluate current left regimes’ performances. The author emphasizes in particular Venezuela’s economic records and her social programmes in this century, in the meantime her participatory politics and internationalism practices are noted so that socialism will not be unduly interpreted in restricted economic ascepts. Though by no means satisfactory, Venezuela has nonetheless had commendable achievements. And yet, Venezuela is just an island moving toward socialism, the capitalist ocean will take and manufacture every opportunity to flood and drown these efforts. To challenge and sabotage the Bolivarian Revolution, Venezuela’s opposition forces have aligned themselves to wage media and economic wars agains Chavistas, with substantial support provided by the US. As such, Venezuela’s revolution as portrayed in the international media, the New York Times as one key example analysed, must have significant political implications. It demonstrates how transnational capitalist forces perceive or wish to put out this emerging socialist flame. The author summarizes and concludes the paper by raising a question relating China to Venezuela.