Tag Archives: Vice President Nicolas Maduro

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Venezuela Election 2013: Hugo Chavez’s Replacement To Be Decided On April 14

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By The Huffington Post News Editors

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuelans will vote April 14 to choose a successor to Hugo Chavez, the elections commission announced Saturday as increasingly strident political rhetoric begins to roil this polarized country.

The constitution mandated the election be held within 30 days of Chavez’s March 5 death, but the date picked falls outside that period. Critics of the socialist government already complained that officials violated the constitution by swearing in Vice President Nicolas Maduro as acting leader Friday night.

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Venezuela sets presidential election for April 14

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Venezuelans will vote April 14 to choose a successor to Hugo Chavez, the elections commission announced Saturday as increasingly strident political rhetoric begins to roil this polarized country.

The constitution mandated the election be held within 30 days of Chavez’s March 5 death, but the date picked falls outside that period. Critics of the socialist government already complained that officials violated the constitution by swearing in Vice President Nicolas Maduro as acting leader Friday night.

Some people have speculated Venezuela will not be ready to organize the vote in time, but elections council chief Tibisay Lucena said the country’s electronic voting system was fully prepared.

Lucena announced the date on state television, appearing in a small inset as the main picture showed people filing past Chavez’s coffin at the military academy in Caracas, where his body has lain in state since Wednesday.

Chavez’s boisterous state funeral Friday often felt like a political rally for his anointed successor, Maduro, who eulogized him by pledging eternal loyalty and vowing Chavez’s movement will never be defeated. Maduro is expected to become the candidate of Chavez’s socialist party.

Ramon Guillermo Aveledo, coordinator of the opposition coalition, immediately followed the election announcement by offering his bloc’s presidential candidacy to Henrique Capriles, the governor of Miranda state who lost to Chavez in October. A Capriles adviser said the governor would announce his decision Sunday.

Mariana Bacalao, a professor of public opinion at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, said the passion on both sides just hours after Chavez’s funeral raised fear of far worse to come in the weeks ahead.

“You can expect during the campaign that these rages will be unleashed,” she said.

In his speech after his swearing-in, Maduro took shots at the United States, the media, international capitalism and domestic opponents he often depicted as treacherous. He claimed the allegiance of Venezuela‘s army, referring to them as the “armed forces of Chavez,” despite the constitution barring the military from taking sides in politics.

The opposition has denounced the transition as an unconstitutional power grab, and Capriles has said his side was studying its strategy for the vote, which will be held in the shadow of the government‘s efforts to immortalize Chavez. Since his death, the former paratrooper has been compared to Jesus Christ and early-19th century Venezuelan liberator Simon Bolivar, and the government announced that his body would be embalmed and put on eternal display.

Edith Palmeira, a 47-year-old Caracas resident at a park Saturday in central Caracas, said she would vote for Maduro, but made clear her allegiance was based purely on her love of Chavez.

“Imitations are never as good as the original,” Palmeira said. “But I think he must have grown as a person during so much time at the president’s side. He must have learned to be a president.”

Elvira Orozco, a 31-year-old business owner, said she planned to sit out the vote to protest Maduro’s swearing-in Friday.

“What they want is to say that here there’s a democracy, but here they violate the constitution and there’s no authority who says anything,” Orozco …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

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Venezuela's opposition leader calls Maduro a liar

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Venezuela’s opposition leader is calling Vice President Nicolas Maduro a bold-faced liar and accuses him of using Hugo Chavez‘s funeral to campaign for the presidency.

Henrique Capriles also said in a speech Friday that the opposition had asked to attend Chavez’s funeral but was told “better that you don’t come.”

Capriles spoke condescendingly of Maduro, calling him “boy.”

Carpiles lost the Oct. 7 presidential election to Chavez. He said he decided to speak Friday to object to the ruling earlier in the day by the country’s highest court that Maduro had become acting president the moment Chavez died.

The government announced Thursday night that Maduro would be sworn in Friday night. He will be the governing socialists’ presidential candidate in the vote to replace Chavez.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

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High court affirms Maduro acting president

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Venezuela’s Supreme Court says Vice President Nicolas Maduro became acting president the moment Hugo Chavez died, and can run for president.

The decision comes just hours before Maduro is to be sworn in as acting president before the National Assembly and it was issued during the state funeral for Chavez.

National Assembly speaker Diosdado Cabello had earlier announced the planned swearing-in, which the opposition says it is boycotting.

In a tweet, opposition leader Henrique Capriles called Friday’s court ruling “a constitutional fraud.”

The constitution specifies that the National Assembly speaker should have become interim president as Chavez was never able to assume office before he died Tuesday.

Chavez was re-elected on Oct. 7 but never sworn in. He anointed Maduro his successor.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

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Wealthy Venezuelans: No tears for Chavez

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In the tree-lined eastern hills of Caracas, you would never know an elaborate state funeral was in progress across town for the most popular president in Venezuela‘s recent history.

At a park in the La Floresta district on Friday, spandex-clad men and women did group aerobics and jogged, while others sat lounging on benches. No one had any intention of paying their respects to “el comandante.”

Hugo Chavez polarized Venezuela between the mostly lower classes who followed him almost blindly during his 14 years in power and an opposition that despised what they said was his autocratic bearing, intolerance for dissent and mismanagement of the economy.

“This is a big joke,” Eduardo Perez, a 44-year-old lawyer, said of the funereal pomp across town. “I feel ridiculous as a Venezuelan.”

“We can’t be so radical as to say he didn’t accomplish anything, but when you consider matter in macro terms you grasp that we are in bad shape,” Perez said as he tinkered with the engine of his Ford Explorer.

Nearby, Cesar Alvarez sat on a bench reading the newspaper.

The 62-year-old elevator company executive said he has hopes for a better future now that Chavez is gone.

“The man did a lot of damage, because he always tried to win over the masses and indeed this is a very populist government that gives things away to the people, passing out money without any work being done.”

On Alvarez’s list of complaints about Chavez:

“He practically kept Cuba afloat. And Bolivia – you see (President) Evo Morales there, crying like a baby because he got money. And Nicaragua, let’s not even go there.”

Cuba and Nicaragua have both benefited from cut-rate Venezuelan oil while Chavez also gave significant aid to Bolivia.

Morales spent all of Wednesday, the day after Chavez’s death was announced, walking beside his friend’s casket through Caracas’ streets.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro announced Thursday that Chavez would be embalmed, his body placed on permanent display.

Alvarez said Maduro …read more
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Chavez state funeral draws several world leaders to Venezuela

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With leaders from five continents on hand, Venezuela prepared for a day of distinctly different ceremonies — first the formal state funeral of Hugo Chavez, then the controversial swearing in of his anointed interim successor, who the opposition charges has no constitutional right to the job.

Friday’s funeral promises to be a final turn on the world stage for Chavez after 14 tumultuous years in power, though in some ways the polarizing former paratrooper is not going anywhere: Venezuela announced Thursday that it would embalm his body and put it on permanent display.

Hours before the ceremony was to start, basic details were still unknown, even where it would be held. The most likely setting was a military academy where Chavez’s body has lain in state since Wednesday. Since then, Venezuelans in their hundreds of thousands have filed past Chavez’s glass-covered casket in a round-the-clock marathon of tears, prayers and military salutes.

The last of what the Venezuelan government says are more than 30 heads of state arrived for the funeral early Friday. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad touched down after 1 a.m. and Chilean President Sebastian Pinera landed around dawn. U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks, a New York Democrat, and former Rep. William Delahunt, a Democrat from Massachusetts, represented the United States, which Chavez often portrayed as a great global evil even as he sent the country billions of dollars in oil each year.

The normally traffic-choked streets of Caracas were empty early Friday with schools and many businesses shuttered. The government also prohibited alcohol sales. Many Venezuelans, particularly Chavez supporters, said they were caught up in the pomp and circumstance of the past few days, and flattered to be in the world’s attention.

“This is historic …I have never seen anything like it,” said Edila Ojeda, a 57-year-old janitor. “He was a world leader recognized internationally. I am speechless. It is impressive.”

Others said they were put off by what they saw as excess, particularly the plan to put Chavez’s body on permanent display.

“He was a president, and I would say not a good one. Not a hero,” said Gloria Ocampos, a retired office manager. “He should be buried, just like any other president. They are treating him like he was the father of the country … It’s crazy.”

Following the funeral, National Assembly Speaker Diosdado Cabello was to swear in Vice President Nicolas Maduro as interim president, as Chavez desired, despite complaints by the opposition that Cabello is the rightful holder of that post under the constitution.

Cabello announced that the swearing in will be held at the same military academy complex where Chavez’s body is lying in state. Normally, presidents in Venezuela are sworn in at the National Assembly.

The constitution says elections must be held within 30 days of Chavez’s Mar. 5 death, though the government has not set a date. Maduro has announced he will be the candidate of Chavez’s ruling socialist party against likely opposition candidate Henrique Capriles, and many expect him to ride the wave of emotion following Chavez’s death to victory.

Friday’s funeral …read more
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Hugo Chavez died of a heart attack while suffering from advanced cancer, Venezuelan general claims

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President Hugo Chavez died of a massive heart attack after great suffering and inaudibly mouthed his desire to live, the head of Venezuela‘s presidential guard said late Wednesday.

“He couldn’t speak but he said it with his lips … `I don’t want to die. Please don’t let me die,’ because he loved his country, he sacrificed himself for his country,” Gen. Jose Ornella told The Associated Press.

The general said he spent the last two years with Chavez, including his final moments, as Venezuela‘s president of 14 years battled an unspecified cancer in the pelvic region.

Ornella spoke to the AP outside the military academy where Chavez’s body lay in state. He said Chavez’s cancer was very advanced when death came but gave no details.

Ornella did not respond when asked if the cancer had spread to Chavez’s lungs.

The government announced on the eve of Chavez’s death that he had suffered a severe new respiratory infection. It was the second such infection reported by officials after Chavez underwent his fourth cancer surgery in Cuba on Dec. 11.

Venezuelan authorities have not said what kind of cancer Chavez had or specified exactly where tumors were removed.

During the first lung infection, near the end of December, doctors implanted a tracheal tube to ease Chavez’s breathing, but breathing insufficiency persisted and worsened, the government said.

Ornella said that Chavez had “the best” doctors from all over the world but that they never discussed the president’s condition in front of him.

The general said he didn’t know precisely what kind of cancer afflicted Chavez, but added: “He suffered a lot.”

He said that Chavez knew when he spoke to Venezuelans on Dec. 8, three days before his final surgery in Cuba, that “there was very little hope he would make it out of that operation.”

It was Chavez’s fourth cancer surgery and previous interventions had been followed by chemotherapy and radiation.

Ornella echoed the concern of Vice President Nicolas Maduro that some sort of foul play was involved in Chavez’s cancer.

“I think it will be 50 years before they declassify a document (that) I think (will show) the hand of the enemy is involved,” he said.

The general didn’t identify who he was talking about, but Maduro suggested possible U.S. involvement on Tuesday. The U.S. State Department called the allegation absurd.

Maduro, Chavez’s self-anointed successor, said Chavez died Tuesday afternoon in a Caracas military hospital.

The government said Chavez, 58, had been there since returning from Cuba on Feb. 18.

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Venezuelan-owned Citgo flies flags half-mast in Texas, Louisiana for Chavez

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By Natalia Angulo

Out of respect for President Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan-owned oil refiner Citgo flew its flags half-mast outside its Houston and Lake Charles, La., offices Wednesday.

Citgo told KHOU 11 News earlier Wednesday that it would lower flags, including the American flag, for Chavez. The company said it would release a statement later in the day, but a request for comment by FoxNews.com was not immediately returned.

In Houston, the flags at the refinery were lowered to half-mast as late as this afternoon, and caused a number of people to look twice as they drove by. James Post, an assistant project manager at an engineering and construction firm in Harris County, told FoxNews.com the sight was “jarring” and it was “disappointing.”

U.S. protocol allows for flags to be lowered for foreign dignitaries and Post recognized Citgo’s right to do so as a private company. However, he said upon seeing the American or Texas flag at half-mast, he immediately questioned the person being honored; and said his mind “immediately jumped to the last time we did this in the Houston-area and it was for Neil Armstrong, so, you wonder.”

Meanwhile, Terry Backhaus, a financial adviser in Louisiana, told FoxNews.com the flags at the Citgo refinery in Lake Charles had apparently been raised back by noon. “I think I used a profanity when I saw it this morning, I was disgusted,” Bakhaus said. “I didn’t believe it to be right, not for somebody who wasn’t a true American ally.”

The late Venezuelan president died Tuesday afternoon at the age of 58 after a two-year battle with cancer. Chavez’s funeral will be held Friday in Caracas. The ceremony is expected to draw leaders from all over the world including Argentina, Uruguay and Bolivia.

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Thousands of Chavez’s supporters filled Caracas’ streets Wednesday to remember the man who dominated their country for 14 years.

But even amid the mass outpouring of grief, questions about the country’s future could not be put off for long, with worries amplified by the government‘s lack of regard for the letter of the constitution, and the military’s eagerness to choose political sides.

Others who bitterly opposed Chavez’s take-no-prisoners brand of socialism said they were sorry about his death, but hopeful it would usher in a less confrontational, more business-friendly era in this major oil-producing country. Under his leadership, the state expropriated key industries, raised taxes on the rich and forced many opponents into exile.

Venezuela and the United States have a complicated relationship — and animosity between Caracas and Washington was rising even in the final hours before Chavez’s death. Vice President Nicolas Maduro claimed “historical enemies” of Venezuela were behind Chavez’s cancer diagnosis.

U.S. officials quickly cast Chavez’s death as an opportunity for America to rebuild a relationship with Venezuela and for the country itself to pursue “meaningful democratic reforms,” with President Obama saying it marked a “new chapter” for the Latin American nation.

An election is expected to be held in 30 days.

Click here for more from KHOU.com.

Fox News’ Jana Winter and the Associated Press …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

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Even after death, Chavez gets choice of successor

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CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuelans stripped of their larger-than-life leader awoke to an uncertain future on Wednesday, with jittery throngs flocking to supermarkets and gas stations to stock up, and anti-American vitriol infusing official statements and the chants of the street.

Hugo Chavez‘s body was being brought from the hospital where he died to a military academy where it will remain until the late president’s funeral Friday, an event that promises to draw leaders from all over Latin America and the world. Already, the presidents of Argentina, Uruguay and Bolivia have arrived for the ceremony.

Even in death, Chavez’s orders were being heeded. The man he anointed to succeed him, Vice President Nicolas Maduro, will continue to run Venezuela as interim president and be the governing socialists’ candidate in an election to be called within 30 days.

In a late night tweet, Venezuelan state-television said Defense Minister Adm. Diego Molero had pledged military support for Maduro’s candidacy against likely opposition candidate Henrique Capriles, despite a constitutional mandate that the armed forces play a non-political role.

The streets of Caracas were free of the usual weekday morning traffic as public employees, schoolchildren and many others stayed home on the first day of a week of national mourning. The only lines were at gas stations where Venezuelans could fill up their tanks for pennies a gallon thanks to generous government subsidies.

For diehard Chavistas who camped out all night outside the military hospital where the former paratrooper died, Wednesday was the first full day without a leader many described as a father figure, an icon in the mold of the early 19th century liberator Simon Bolivar. Others saw the death of a man who presided over Venezuela as a virtual one-man show as an opportunity to turn back the clock on his socialist policies.

For both sides, uncertainty ruled the day.

It was not immediately clear when the presidential vote would be held, or where or when Chavez would be buried following Friday’s pageant-filled funeral.

Venezuela‘s constitution specifies that the speaker of the National Assembly, currently Diosdado Cabello, should assume the interim presidency if a president can’t be sworn in.

But the officials left in charge by Chavez before he went to Cuba in December for his fourth cancer surgery have not been especially …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

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Chavez's hand-picked successor takes command in Venezuela

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Even in death, Hugo Chavez‘s orders are being followed. The man he anointed to succeed him, Vice President Nicolas Maduro, will continue to run Venezuela as interim president and be the governing socialists’ candidate in an election to be called within 30 days.

Foreign Minister Elias Jaua confirmed that Tuesday, just hours after Maduro, tears running down his face, announced the death of Chavez, the larger-than-life former paratroop officer who had presided over Venezuela as virtually a one-man show for more than 14 years.

It was not immediately clear when the presidential vote would be held.

Considerable funereal pageantry was expected to honor Chavez, the political impresario widely adored among Venezuela‘s poor for putting the oil-rich state in their service.

Seven days of mourning were declared, all school was suspended for the week and friendly heads of state were expected in this economically challenged and violence-afflicted nation for an elaborate funeral Friday. No date or place were announced for Chavez’s burial.

Venezuela‘s constitution specifies that the speaker of the National Assembly, currently Diosdado Cabello, should assume the interim presidency if a president can’t be sworn in.

But the officials left in charge by Chavez before he went to Cuba in December for his fourth cancer surgery in a little less than two years have not been especially assiduous about heeding the constitution, and human rights and free speech activists are concerned they will flaunt the rule of law.

Some in anguish, some in fear, Venezuelans raced for home and stocked up on food and water after the government announced Chavez’s death, declining to say what exactly killed him. On Monday night, the government had said the president had been weakened by a severe, new respiratory infection.

Tuesday was a day fraught with mixed signals, some foreboding. Just a few hours before announcing Chavez’s death, Maduro virulently accused enemies, domestic and foreign and clearly including the United States, of trying to undermine Venezuelan democracy. The government said two U.S. military attaches had been expelled for allegedly trying to destabilize the nation.

But in announcing that the president was dead, Maduro shifted tone, calling on Venezuelans to be “dignified heirs of the giant man.”

“Let there be no weakness, no violence. Let there be no hate. In our hearts there should only be one sentiment: Love. Love, peace and discipline.”

Opposition leader Henrique Capriles, who lost to Chavez in the October presidential election and is widely expected to be the opposition’s candidate to oppose Maduro, was conciliatory in a televised address.

“This is not the moment to highlight what separates us,” Capriles said. “This is not the hour for differences; it is the hour for union, it is the hour for peace.”

Capriles, the youthful governor of Miranda state, has been bitterly feuding with Maduro and other Chavez loyalists who accused him of conspiring with far-right U.S. forces to undermine the revolution.

Across downtown Caracas, shops and restaurants begin closing and Venezuelans hustled for home, some even breaking into a run. Many looked anguished and incredulous.

“I feel a sorrow so big I can’t speak,” said Yamilina …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

Articles of Interest

What Now for Venezuela?

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By Rob Quinn Venezuelans now have a final answer to questions about Hugo Chavez‘s health but the leader’s death has presented the country with a host of new uncertainties. Vice President Nicolas Maduro, Chavez’s chosen successor, is leading the country for now but an election will be called within 30 days. It’s not… …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home

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Venezuela Interim President Nicolas Maduro Will Rule Until New Elections, Foreign Minister Says

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By The Huffington Post News Editors

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s foreign minister said Tuesday that Vice President Nicolas Maduro will be interim president in the wake of Hugo Chavez‘s death and run as the governing party candidate in elections to be called within 30 days.

It was not immediately clear when presidential elections would be held.

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Venezuelans in US hopeful of change after Chavez death

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Cheering Venezuelans in the U.S. waved their country’s flag and anxiously voiced hope that change would come to their homeland after the death Tuesday of long-ruling populist President Hugo Chavez.

“He’s gone!” dozens in a largely anti-Chavez community chanted after word spread swiftly of the death of the 58-year-old leftist. Many said they were rejoicing after nearly a decade and a half of socialist rule, heavily concentrated in Chavez’s hands.

“We are not celebrating death,” Ana San Jorge, 37, said amid a jubilant crowd in the Miami suburb of Doral. “We are celebrating the opening of a new door, of hope and change.”

Wearing caps and T-shirts in Venezuela‘s colors of yellow, blue and red, many expressed cautious optimism and concern after the announcement of the death. But some were anxious, too.

“Although we might all be united here celebrating today, we don’t know what the future holds,” said Francisco Gamez, 18, at El Arepazo, a popular Venezuelan restaurant in Doral.

In Caracas, Venezuela‘s foreign minister announced late Tuesday that Vice President Nicolas Maduro would be interim president and run as the governing party candidate in elections to be called within 30 days. It wasn’t immediately clear when presidential elections would be held.

Chavez, though cancer-stricken in recent years, had led the oil-rich Latin American nation for years by espousing a fiery brand of socialism. All the while he bickered with a succession of U.S. governments over what he called Washington’s hegemony in the region.

Many in Florida’s large Venezuelan community and other such pockets around the U.S. are stridently anti-Chavez and had fled their home country in response to the policies his government instituted.

One of them is Marcel Mata, a 28-year-old opponent of Chavez, who now lives in New Orleans. He moved to the U.S. from Caracas, Venezuela, during a turbulent period in 2002 and said the prospects of an election were dizzying for opposition forces long unable to defeat the seemingly larger-than-life Chavez.

After 14 years of Chavez, Mata said: “It’s hard to believe. There seemed to be no end in sight and now there’s a sense of hope.”

Mata said Maduro may not have the campaign allure of the charismatic Chavez, adding “there’s no way anyone in his party can fill his shoes.” But he said he is nervous about the transition no matter who wins, warning there could be trouble.

A large number of professionals and others left their country beginning after Chavez became president in 1999. Many did not agree with his socialist government, became frightened of soaring crime or sought better fortunes abroad.

Doral has the largest concentration of Venezuelans living in the U.S. They transformed what was a quiet suburb near Miami‘s airport into a bustling city affectionately known as “Doralzuela.”

The restaurant El Arepazo is at the heart of the community and sells arepas, corn flour patties stuffed with fresh cheese and other fillings. Hundreds of Venezuelans gathered at its tables with family and friends, riveted to the news broadcasts from their country Tuesday.

An estimated 189,219 Venezuelan immigrants live in the United States, according …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox US News

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Venezuela's foreign minister says VP Maduro is interim president

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Venezuela‘s foreign minister said Tuesday that Vice President Nicolas Maduro will be interim president in the wake of Hugo Chavez‘s death and run as the governing party candidate in elections to be called within 30 days.

It was not immediately clear when presidential elections would be held.

Four hours after Chavez’s death was announced, Foreign Minister Elias Jaua told the Telesur network that the president had clearly stated in December what should occur if he died.

Chavez said Maduro should be the socialist party candidate and suggested he should oversee the convening of new elections.

Venezuela‘s constitution specifies that the speaker of the National Assembly, currently Diosdado Cabello, should assume the interim presidency if a president can’t be sworn in.

Chavez was re-elected in October but never sworn in.

…read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

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Venezuela Boots US Embassy Official, Cries Espionage

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By Kate Seamons Venezuela is booting a US embassy official amid claims of espionage and plotting to destabilize the country. With Hugo Chavez clinging to life , it was Vice President Nicolas Maduro who today announced the government‘s move, explaining that the American, described as an Air Force attache, has been meeting with military… …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Newser – Home

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BREAKING: Hugo Chavez Dead

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By Breaking News

Hugo Chavez SC BREAKING: Hugo Chavez dead

CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela’s vice president announced that President Hugo Chavez died on Tuesday, ending 14 years of rule by the firebrand socialist but leaving his party firmly in control of the nation.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro said that Chavez died “after battling a tough illness for nearly two years.”

The death apparently sets up a presidential election to replace Chavez, whose illness prevented him from taking the oath of office for the term to which he was re-elected last year.

Under the constitution, the head of Congress, Diosdado Cabello, would assume the interim presidency.

The announcement came just hours after Maduro announced the government had expelled two U.S. diplomats from the country.

Read more at Official Wire. By Fabiola Sanchez.

Photo credit: www_ukberri_net (Creative Commons)

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Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez dead, VP says

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President Hugo Chavez, the fiery populist who declared a socialist revolution in Venezuela, crusaded against U.S. influence and championed a leftist revival across Latin America, died Tuesday at age 58 after a nearly two-year bout with cancer.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro, surrounded by other government officials, announced the death in a national television broadcast. He said Chavez died at 4:25 p.m. local time.

During more than 14 years in office, Chavez routinely challenged the status quo at home and internationally. He polarized Venezuelans with his confrontational and domineering style, yet was also a masterful communicator and strategist who tapped into Venezuelan nationalism to win broad support, particularly among the poor.

Chavez repeatedly proved himself a political survivor. As an army paratroop commander, he led a failed coup in 1992, then was pardoned and elected president in 1998. He survived a coup against his own presidency in 2002 and won re-election two more times.

The burly president electrified crowds with his booming voice, often wearing the bright red of his United Socialist Party of Venezuela or the fatigues and red beret of his army days. Before his struggle with cancer, he appeared on television almost daily, talking for hours at a time and often breaking into song of philosophical discourse.

Chavez used his country’s vast oil wealth to launch social programs that include state-run food markets, new public housing, free health clinics and education programs. Poverty declined during Chavez’s presidency amid a historic boom in oil earnings, but critics said he failed to use the windfall of hundreds of billions of dollars to develop the country’s economy.

Inflation soared and the homicide rate rose to among the highest in the world.

Chavez underwent surgery in Cuba in June 2011 to remove what he said was a baseball-size tumor from his pelvic region, and the cancer returned repeatedly over the next 18 months despite more surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatments. He kept secret key details of his illness, including the type of cancer and the precise location of the tumors.

“El Comandante,” as he was known, stayed in touch with the Venezuelan people during his treatment via Twitter and phone calls broadcast on television, but even those messages dropped off as his health deteriorated.

Two months after his last re-election in October, Chavez returned to Cuba again for cancer surgery, blowing a kiss to his country as he boarded the plane. He was never seen again in public.

After a 10-week absence marked by opposition protests over the lack of information about the president’s health and growing unease among the president’s “Chavista” supporters, the government released photographs of Chavez on Feb. 15 and three days later announced that the president had returned to Venezuela to be treated at a military hospital in Caracas.

Throughout his presidency, Chavez said he hoped to fulfill Bolivar’s unrealized dream of uniting South America.

He was also inspired by Cuban leader Fidel Castro and took on the aging revolutionary’s role as Washington’s chief antagonist in the Western Hemisphere after Castro relinquished the presidency to his brother Raul in 2006.

Supporters …read more
Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

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Venezuelan President Chavez very delicate with new infection, government says

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A new and severe respiratory infection has cancer-stricken President Hugo Chavez in a “very delicate” state, and his breathing has deteriorated, the Venezuelan government announced late Monday.

Communications Minister Ernesto Villegas read a brief statement on national television saying Chavez’s “worsening respiratory function” was related to a weakening of his immune system.

He said the charismatic socialist leader had “a new and severe infection.” The state news agency identified it as a respiratory infection.

Villegas said Chavez had been undergoing “chemotherapy of strong impact, among other treatments.”

He said Chavez’s condition continues to be very delicate and that he was “standing by Christ and life conscious of the difficulties he faces.”

In the statement, Villegas lashed out at “the corrupt Venezuelan right” for what he called a psychological war seeking “scenarios of violence” to encourage “foreign intervention in Venezuela.”

Upon Chavez‘s death, the opposition would contest the government‘s candidate in a snap election, and the campaigning has already begun although undeclared. Chavez has governed Venezuela, gradually placing all state institutions under his personal control, for more than 14 years.

Opposition lawmaker Julio Borges condemned Villegas’ statement via Twitter as an inappropriate use of a medical bulletin for political reasons: “I lament such a poverty of humanity.”

There has been speculation that Chavez’s cancer has spread to his lungs and can’t be halted.

An oncologist not involved in Chavez’s treatment, which has been conducted in secrecy, told The Associated Press that he viewed Villegas’ statement as recognition that Chavez’s condition is “truly precarious.” He called into question the veracity of Villegas’ statement that Chavez had been under chemotherapy, saying patients in such a delicate state simply are not put on chemotherapy.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro, who Chavez has said should succeed him as president, first announced last week that the president had begun receiving chemotherapy around the end of January.

Doctors have said that such therapy was not necessarily to try to beat Chavez’s cancer into remission but could have been palliative, to extend Chavez’s life and ease his suffering.

The 58-year-old Chavez was flown home to Venezuela on Feb. 18, a little more than two months after undergoing his fourth surgery in Cuba for an unspecified cancer in the pelvic region.

He suffered a severe respiratory infection in Cuba in the last days of 2012 that nearly killed him, Vice President Nicolas Maduro said last week.

A tracheal tube was inserted then and government officials have said his breathing remained labored.

The cancer was first diagnosed in June 2011, and Chavez has undergone radiation treatment and chemotherapy after operations.

He has not been seen nor heard of — other than proof-of-life photos released on Feb. 15 — since he flew to Cuba for his last surgery, which was performed on Dec. 11.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Fox World News

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Hugo Chavez Chemotherapy: Venezuela Says President Receiving Treatment For Cancer Again

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By The Huffington Post News Editors

CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez has been receiving chemotherapy since recovering from a severe respiratory infection in mid-January and “continues his battle for life,” his vice president said late Friday.

Vice President Nicolas Maduro suggested the chemotherapy was continuing in the government‘s first mention of it as among treatments that Venezuela‘s cancer-stricken president has received since his Dec. 11 cancer surgery in Cuba.

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Source: FULL ARTICLE at Huffington Post