Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez lost his battle with cancer Tuesday (last night), silencing the leading voice of the Latin
American left and plunging his divided oil-rich nation
into an uncertain future.
Vice President Nicolas
Maduro, who struggled to
hold back tears as he announced Chavez’s death, said the government had deployed the armed forces and police “to accompany
and protect our people and
guarantee the peace.”
Chavez had named Maduro
as his heir, but the Venezuelan opposition is sure to press for fresh
elections and tensions have been mounting over government allegations that its domestic rivals are in league with its foreign foes.
Shortly before Chavez’s death was announced, Maduro and other top officials had accused Venezuela’s enemies of somehow giving the 58-year- old leftist the cancer that eventually killed him, and two US military attaches were expelled. Under the constitution, elections must be held within 30 days and National Assembly speaker Diosdado Cabello must take over on an interim basis, but Chavez had urged Venezuelans to vote for Maduro if he was unable to return.
Soldiers brought the
Venezuelan flag down to
half-staff at the Caracas
military hospital, where
senior figures in Chavez’s
14-year-old administration gathered before the cameras of state television to break the news.
“We have received the toughest and tragic information that…
comandante President Hugo
Chavez died today at 4:25
pm,” Maduro said.
“Long live Chavez!” the officials shouted at the end of his announcement. Chavez had been checked into the hospital on February 18 for a course of chemotherapy after spending two months in Cuba, where in December he had undergone his fourth round of cancer surgery since June 2011.
Chavez survived a short-
lived coup in 2002 that
lasted just 47 hours after
popular protests restored
him to power. A 2004
attempt by the opposition to oust him in a recall
referendum was defeated. Elected to a second six-year
term in 2006, Chavez then
won a 2009 referendum that
abolished the two-term limit
and enabled him to run
indefinitely.
Now, for the first time in 14 years, Venezuelans will not see his name on the next election’s ballot.
RIP Chav!
News and Photo as it appeared on Vanguard News.
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