Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez dead at 58

[Nathan]

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has died following a battle with cancer, Vice President Nicolas Maduro said today.
Chavez died at 4:25 p.m., Maduro said.
Chavez, who won re-election to a third six-year term in October after saying he was "totally free" of the disease, had not appeared in public since Dec. 10, when he flew to Cuba to undergo his fourth surgery since June 2011. Before leaving, the 58-year-old called on Venezuelans to vote for Vice President Nicolas Maduro should he be unable to complete his term, which began on Jan. 10.
According to Venezuela's constitution an election must be held within 30 days of the president's death. It's unclear whether Maduro or National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello will take over on an interim basis after the Supreme Court ruled in January that the ailing president could delay his swearing in for a new term.
Chavez returned to Caracas on Feb. 18 and went directly to a military hospital, the government said at the time.

Official Link : http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/03/05/hugo-chavez-dead-after-battle-with-cancer-vp/

 

[Cordelia]

I liked your post because I'm glad to see that another despot is gone. Of course, the next leader could be just as bad if not worse (a la North Korea).

 

[Nathan]

I liked your post because I'm glad to see that another despot is gone. Of course, the next leader could be just as bad if not worse (a la North Korea).

Come on, he was a human being after all.

 

[Cordelia]

While it's sad to see someone die to cancer, it is still not sad to see a despot gone from power.

 

[BlazingLink]

I would say I'm split in how I feel about this. Obviously he was a dictator, and whenever a dictator falls from power, it's fantastic.

However, he also died of Cancer, which has claimed hundreds of millions of lives.

So yeah, it's sad in some aspects I suppose, while it was great in other areas.

 

[mvtm]

I live in Venezuela and have a mixture of feelings. Most of us, got this as good news. I did, but i do not feel happy about someone dying. So i don't have a particular feeling about this. I hope now, we turn everything for the better. I'm sure we all see a new light from now on. These news ain't shock for us. We all saw this coming long time ago. In fact it is believed his death was a few days ago.

All in all, we are free to a better future. From 1998 to 2013 it's been a long time and Venezuela has suffered a lot in both economical and political progress.

 

[Toutebelle]

Hooray!

I hope the Venezuelan people don't get another dictator for a long time. And hopefully the next leader won't be a member of his family, and if we don't get another Chavez, maybe the United States-Venezuela relationship will improve.

After all, the rest of Latin America has moved on from dictatorships. The days of the caudillos are over.

 

[Ivysaur]

There is a problem with calling him a dictator though: he won elections. He won a crapload of elections. As manipulative and as bad a President he was, he had charisma and helped reduce the poverty in his country (if only thanks to the cheap dollars coming from oil, but still). Many people didn't vote for him just because they were brainwashed or ignorant, but because they did feel their life conditions had improved under his rule. He wasn't a dictator in the true sense of the word, he did lose a referendum to change the Constitution (which dictatorship would allow something like that?). A few months ago, he won the elections by 1,5 million votes (10%), but he lost a handful of Governorships (including the most important State in the country, Miranda, which is held by the opposition leader Henrique Capriles) and he only keeps the legislative thanks to some good old gerrymandering, as he also lost those in total number of votes cast (like the Republicans in Congress).

So please, do not compare Venezuela to North Korea. They don't deserve that. It's just a charismatic leader like the dozen South America have had in the last century.

And chances are the mourning for his loss will help VP Nicolás Maduro get elected in his place next month. Now the question is, with Chávez dead, whill the Chavismo survive? Will Maduro ever get a second term?