Tuesday, March 5, 2013
Venezuela's Hugo Chavez dies of cancer |
Controversial president has died after a two-year battle with cancer, leaving future of oil-rich nation in question.
Last Modified: 05 Mar 2013 22:48
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Chavez underwent surgery in Cuba in June to remove a tumor from his pelvic region
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| Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has died after a two-year battle with cancer, ending the socialist leader's 14-year rule of the South American country, Vice President Nicolas Maduro has said in a televised speech. Maduro, surrounded by other government officials, announced the death in a national television broadcast on Tuesday. Reaction from around the world to Chavez's death was swift. Ban Ki-Moon, the UN secretary-general, said he is "conveying condolence" to the Venezuelan president's "family and the people of Venezuela", according to Al Jazeera's James Bays, who was reporting from New York. Vitaly Churkin, Russia's ambassador to the UN, also issued as statement describing Chavez's death as a "tragedy". "He was a great politician for his country and for the world as a whole," Churkin said. During more than 14 years in office, Chavez routinely challenged the status quo at home and internationally. Chavez polarised 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 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. The populist leader of oil-rich Venezuela became Latin America's most vocal and controversial leader and was Washington's chief antagonist in the region |
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