Chavez Lavishes Oil Wealth on Neighbors In bid to undercut IMF, Chavez becomes Latin America's banker By Heather McPherson Posted Aug 9, 2007 8:53 AM CDT Copied Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, right, talks to Uruguay's President Tabare Vazquez during a meeting in Montevideo, Uruguay, Aug. 8, 2007. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico) (Associated Press) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is spreading hundreds of millions of oil dollars around South America in an effort to limit the influence of the International Monetary Fund and forge a strong alliance. Chavez began a four-nation tour in Argentina referring to the IMF as "Dracula" and called for a united front against the US. In Argentina he promised to buy up $1 billion in debt and build a refinery; he's expected offer similar economic and energy deals to Uruguay, Ecuador and Bolivia. "We need to unite, and the North American empire doesn't want us to unite," he said. Argentina paid off all its IMF debt in 2006; critics now worry that the nation will be "Chavez dependent." Read These Next A Minnesota gubernatorial candidate's daughter has been killed. FBI images show masked man at Nancy Guthrie's front door. Police raided a 'bikini cafe' and arrested 17. Talent agency exec gets hit over flirty emails with Ghislaine Maxwell. Report an error