Hugo Chavez Succumbs At The Age Of 58

Hugo Chavez Succumbs At The Age Of 58

The socialist president of Venezuela, Hugo Chavez, has died recently at 58 according to Nicolas Maduro, the vice president of Venezuela.

Chavez had sought treatment in Cuba for an undisclosed type of cancer. He was among the most famous Latin American leader while he was in office. Despite suppressing free speech, he continued to be popular among the poor of Venezuela.

After coming into office in 1999, Hugo Chavez controlled the media and held a number of referendums and elections that allowed him to stay in power. However, his public appearances started to become limited after he underwent a surgery and chemotherapy in Cuba.

Last December 8, he announced that he will undergo surgery in Cuba for pelvic cancer that returned.

The late president was a decorated paratrooper who graduated from a military academy. A failed coup that he led in 1992 resulted to his imprisonment for two years. Hugo Chavez received a pardon later and changed the movement he established into a populist party.

Although Venezuela has a long democratic tradition, the middle class were disappointed in the early nineties due to endemic corruption that affected the major political parties of the country. Chavez pledged to eliminate corruption in the country and promised to use the oil revenue to help the poor.

He also said that oil executives lived in luxury and indicated that the Catholic Church hierarchy ignored the poor. However, he focused his ire on the United States, especially the George W. Bush, the former president. In a UN General Assembly speech in 2006, he called the former president a devil.

The late president of Venezuela also revealed in an interview by Barbara Walters in 2007 that he said something that a number of people would want to tell him. Although he promised to eliminate corruption in the country, the administration of Hugo Chavez also experienced widespread corruption and was constantly criticized for a number of human rights abuses.

Posted by James Fried on Wednesday March 06 2013, 1:40 PM EDT. Ref: ABC News. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Featured News, World. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0