When nine Caribbean countries signed oil trading agreements with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, it was a marriage of convenience.

Fragile Caribbean economies scored modest relief from rising fuel prices, while the leftist South American leader advanced his campaign to become a counterweight to U.S. influence in the region, analysts say.

“A lot of what Chavez is doing right now is just bravado,” said Vinay Jawahar of the Washington-based Inter-American Dialogue. “But it’s going to make the United States’ life harder.”

Jawahar said Chavez is trying to increase his influence in the 34-nation Organization of American States, whose top human rights panel has often criticized the Venezuelan government.

Yet Chavez can only go so far in eroding U.S. influence in the Caribbean, analysts say. The United States is the biggest trade partner of most Caribbean countries and their largest market for tourism.

The same day the Dominican Republic signed the Petrocaribe oil agreement with Venezuela, its legislature overwhelmingly approved a free trade agreement with the United States and five Central American countries.

“Only a crazy person would have turned down Chavez’s deal with oil at $70 a barrel,” said Miguel Ceara-Hatton, a U.N. economist in the Dominican capital.