Venezuelan president, Hugo Chavez dies at 58 after battle with cancer
While his death will end months of suspense that have cast a shadow of uncertainty across both his country and its leftist allies in the region, it now also plunges one of the world's leading petro-nations into what is certain to be pitched political struggle, the outcome of which remains uncertain.
Not that the socialist state machine that Mr Chavez led has not had time to prepare. After winning a third term as President last October, Mr Chavez abruptly declared on 10 December last year that he was once again in the grip of the cancer that was first diagnosed in July 2011. The next day, after a tearful national television broadcast, he vanished to Havana, Cuba, for treatment. He was never to be seen publicly again.
The death of one of Latin America's most egotistical, bombastic and polarising leaders was announced on television by Vice-president Nicolas Maduro, who is now expected to fight in a snap election to succeed him. Mr Chavez, he told a shocked nation, had died "after battling a tough illness for nearly two years".
The prolonged absence of Mr Chavez had already caused tensions, notably since his failure to turn up for his own inauguration in Caracas in January. Against furious remonstrations from the opposition, the government insisted at the time that the leader was still in charge of the nation from his hospital bed.
Opposition patience with this and with the relative lack of clear information of what the actual condition of Mr Chavez was had been wearing extremely thin. In mid-February, the government allowed the first pictures of Mr Chavez to be published, which showed him in his hospital cot being attended to by two of his daughters. Shortly thereafter he was flown in the dead of night to Caracas, where he was installed in the main military hospital. It seems now that he was moved so he could at least die on his own soil.
Not that the socialist state machine that Mr Chavez led has not had time to prepare. After winning a third term as President last October, Mr Chavez abruptly declared on 10 December last year that he was once again in the grip of the cancer that was first diagnosed in July 2011. The next day, after a tearful national television broadcast, he vanished to Havana, Cuba, for treatment. He was never to be seen publicly again.
The death of one of Latin America's most egotistical, bombastic and polarising leaders was announced on television by Vice-president Nicolas Maduro, who is now expected to fight in a snap election to succeed him. Mr Chavez, he told a shocked nation, had died "after battling a tough illness for nearly two years".
The prolonged absence of Mr Chavez had already caused tensions, notably since his failure to turn up for his own inauguration in Caracas in January. Against furious remonstrations from the opposition, the government insisted at the time that the leader was still in charge of the nation from his hospital bed.
Opposition patience with this and with the relative lack of clear information of what the actual condition of Mr Chavez was had been wearing extremely thin. In mid-February, the government allowed the first pictures of Mr Chavez to be published, which showed him in his hospital cot being attended to by two of his daughters. Shortly thereafter he was flown in the dead of night to Caracas, where he was installed in the main military hospital. It seems now that he was moved so he could at least die on his own soil.
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