In fact, the more important recent developments within the Latin American left may lie not so much in the horserace results of elections, but in the growing differences between modernists and revanchists, between national interests and ideology. As Morales cozies up to Chávez and Fidel Castro more quickly than most people expected – nationalizing Bolivia’s natural gas, inviting large numbers of Cuban doctors and advisers to his country, and signing myriad cooperation agreements with Venezuela – he is also fueling increasing tensions with Brazil and Chile.