CARACAS, Venezuela — Laid-off Brazilian factory workers have their jobs back, Nicaraguan farmers are getting low-interest loans, and Bolivian mayors can afford new health clinics, all thanks to President Chavez of Venezuela. Bolstered by windfall oil profits, Mr. Chavez’s government is now offering more direct state funding to Latin America and the Caribbean than the United States. A tally by the Associated Press shows Venezuela has pledged more than $8.8 billion in aid, financing, and energy funding so far this year.

While the most recent figures available from Washington show $3 billion in American grants and loans reached the region in 2005, it isn’t known how much of the Venezuelan money has actually been delivered. And Mr. Chavez’s spending abroad doesn’t come close to the overall volume of American private investment and trade in Latin America.

But in terms of direct government funding, the scale of Venezuela’s commitments is unprecedented for a Latin American country. Mr. Chavez’s largesse tends to benefit left-leaning nations that support his vision of a Latin America with greater independence from the American government. But he denies the two countries are in a competition.

“We don’t want to compete with anyone. I wish the United States were 100 times above us,” Mr. Chavez told the AP in a recent interview. “But no, the U.S. government views the region in a marginal way. What they offer is a pittance sometimes, and with unacceptable pressures that at times countries can’t accept.”

American aid tends to be low-profile, constrained by strict guidelines and often distributed through other institutions so that recipients may not know it’s from the American government. Venezuela offers money with few strings attached and a personal Chavez touch that aid experts say generates more good will dollar for dollar.

Clay Lowery, the U.S. Treasury Department’s acting undersecretary for international affairs, argues that the American government plays a larger role than reflected in its aid figures. America, for instance, drove Inter-American Development Bank and World Bank debt relief deals totaling $7.5 billion over the past three years in Latin America, he said.

“Who is the biggest financier of the IDB? The United States. Who is the biggest financier of the World Bank? The United States is. We don’t count those,” Mr. Lowery said. “We’re basically engaged on a multilevel, multiprong approach.”

Still, as the Chavez effect gains ground, there are signs America is responding to the challenge.

The U.S. Navy medical ship Comfort is on a four-month, 12-country voyage to Latin American ports, and has already treated more than 80,000 patients with free vaccinations, eye care, dental checkups, and surgeries aboard the converted oil tanker.

American officials are taking their cue from the free eye surgeries and medical training that Mr. Chavez offers, says Adam Isacson of the Washington-based Center for International Policy, which tracks American aid and advocates international cooperation. “They’re trying to do things that are aimed in a small way at countering what Chavez is doing— Chavez’s much larger aid programs,” he said.

His group calculates that nearly half of U.S. aid to the region goes to military and police programs. However, U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson also has pointed to the U.S. government’s work with the IDB to mobilize up to $200 million through private lenders to support small business loans.

Mr. Chavez’s aid isn’t limited to his region. Low-income Americans get cheap heating oil, while the former Soviet republic of Belarus is counting on Mr. Chavez to help pay off a $460 million gas bill to Russia. But most of the funding goes to Latin America.

When a Brazilian plastics factory was shut in 2003 by its owners, hundreds of workers formed a cooperative. They appealed for help in a private meeting with Mr. Chavez, who offered subsidized raw materials in exchange for the technology to produce plastic homes in Venezuela. The factory soon hummed back to life.