Hugo

[American Patriot]

Luke! Alert! Get those bets in on this guy! LOL

Venezuelan leaders gather at bedside of Hugo Chávez

Recently re-elected president has undergone his fourth cancer-related surgery and his health is said to be 'delicate'

• Virginia Lopez in Caracas
  
• The Guardian, Thursday 3 January 2013 13.37 EST

Hugo Chávez at the presidential palace in Caracas after his third round of chemotherapy. Photograph: AFP/AFP/Getty Images

Senior Venezuelan leaders have gathered in Cuba where Hugo Chávez is recovering from his fourth cancer-related surgery, amid growing speculation that the recently re-elected president will be unable to attend the 10 January inauguration of his fourth term in power.
Diosdado Cabello, the president of the National Assembly, and Chávez's brother Adan, a regional governor, joined the vice-president, Nicolas Maduro, in Havana where Chávez underwent surgery three weeks ago.
Maduro described Chávez's health as "delicate" after reporting on New Year's Eve that the oil-rich nation's leader had suffered a new complication from a respiratory infection.
On Wednesday night, Jorge Arreaza, the minister of science and technology and Chávez's son-in-law, wrote on Twitter that the president was stable despite his serious condition. "Commander Chávez continues to fight hard, and sends all his love for our fatherland," he wrote.
But there have been no official announcements on the president's health, and in the absence of any facts Venezuelans are facing growing uncertainty over the health of their leader, and the future of their country.
The constitution stipulates that if Chávez were unable to take power, presidential elections must be called within 30 days.
But Cabello, the current head of the legislative body, has said the constitution leaves room to interpret that the oath into power could be taken at a later time and in an undetermined place. Cabello has repeatedly said that President Chávez is Venezuela's only legitimate leader and that the date of the inauguration can be extended until Chávez is fit to govern.
On Thursday, the minister for information, Ernesto Villegas, asked Globovision to issue a correction after the TV news channel referred to Maduro as the president in charge.
"I would like to remind you that the only president in power of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela is Hugo Chávez, who won the 7 October election with 8,191,132 votes", Villegas said in a letter to Globovision.
In a televised nationwide address before undergoing surgery, Chávez instructed that, according to the constitution, Maduro should take over power if he were unable to govern. He also asked Venezuelans to vote for Maduro when elections were held.

[Malsua]

Awww, poor Hugo. All that money he looted won't gain him one extra day.

[American Patriot]

LOL nope.

I hope he goes straight to hell too.

[MinutemanCO]

Gonna meet his maker for real, whether he likes it or not.

[vector7]

Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan leader and U.S. foil, dies

Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela for the last 14 years, died Tuesday following his treatment for cancer. His death was announced by the country's vice president Nicolas Maduro, ending a months-long period of speculation surrounding his health -- a period often marked by secrecy and rumor. He was 58.

The popular but controversial leader had won his fourth presidential term in 2012 but was never sworn due to his failing health.

The career military officer-turned-politician won friends and enemies as he launched poverty-fighting programs, nationalized key industries and forged alliances with other leftist leaders in Latin America -- particularly the Castro brothers in Cuba.

• Venezuela expels 2 U.S. officials amid spy accusation
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His political development took him from social democracy to what he called "Socialism of the 21st Century." His opponents, mostly from the upper-middle class and the wealthy, accused him of becoming a dictator in the mold of his mentor, Fidel Castro, who Chavez once described as being like a father to him.

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Hugo Chavez: The 60 Minutes interview

In a 2002 profile on "60 Minutes," Chavez acknowledged his polarizing effect.

"I have been compared to Hitler, the devil himself. And what I do is struggle for a people. I am a true democrat," he told Steve Kroft.

Toward the end of his life, Chavez's health was treated as a state secret. He had four operations since June 2011, including one that removed a baseball-sized tumor from his pelvic region. Chavez returned to Venezuela Feb. 18 following his most recent surgery in Cuba, performed in December, and was undergoing further treatment at a military hospital in Caracas for what government officials described as a respiratory infection. Aside from several pictures released by the government, Chavez had been unseen by the public for months.

Chavez came to prominence in 1992 when he tried to overthrow then-President Carlos Andres Perez amid growing anger at the government's austerity measures. The coup failed but his message struck a chord with the 19 million Venezuelans living in poverty.

Chavez rose to power over the next six years with his fiery, populist stands against the rich and was elected president in 1998. He moved quickly to tighten control over the country's lucrative state-run oil industry, using the money to open free health clinics and expand social programs.

35 Photos

Hugo Chavez: 1954-2013

A new constitution backed by Chavez won a referendum with 72 percent of the vote, although there was only a 50 percent voter turnout. The new document included increased protection for indigenous peoples and women and established the right to education, housing, health care and food.

His strength lay with the country's poor. United Nations statistics show that by 1997, the year before Chavez won his first run for the presidency, the per capita income for Venezuelan citizens had fallen to $2,858 from $5,192 in 1990. Poverty levels had increased by 17.65 percent since 1980 and homicide and other crime rates had more than doubled since 1986, particularly in Caracas. The ground was ripe for the emergence of a populist leader. After his election, he launched a weekly television program -- "Hello President" -- where citizens could call in.

Although full of bravado and revolutionary rhetoric, Chavez's early policies could be described as moderate, capitalist and center-left. But his language turned increasingly radical, and defined himself as anti-imperialist and generally anti-capitalist.



Cuban President Fidel Castro speaks with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at Havana's international airport November 15, 1999.
/ MATIAS RECART/AFP/Getty Images

In his second term in office Chavez forged tighter ties with Cuba. Closer relations with the socialist island went hand-in-hand with deteriorating relations with the United States. In 2006, continuing his outspoken criticism of the U.S., Chavez called then-President George W. Bush a "donkey."

Adding to the tension was Chavez's long list of dubious friends over the years - a who's who of America's enemies - from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Iran, Muamaar Qaddafi in Libya, and Iraq's Saddam Hussein.

Chavez's self-styled revolution angered the opposition. He was accused of being a "messiah" and out of touch. In 2002, the opposition attempted to unseat Chavez, throwing him in jail in a bloodless coup.

In the days preceding the coup, the five main private Venezuelan TV stations gave advertising space to those calling for anti-Chavez demonstrations. The United States immediately extended recognition to the new government, which claimed Chavez had resigned. But Chavez supporters, both military and civilian, took back control of the presidential palace and freed him from the military barracks where he was being held.

He returned to Caracas in triumph.

Petroleum production loomed large over his tenure. Venezuela was, at the beginning of the 21st century, the world's fifth largest crude oil exporter. Oil accounted for around 85 percent of the country's exports. Chavez's predecessors tried to privatize the industry and U.S. corporations held significant control.


Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, accompanied by his wife Marisabel, pulls out the sword of South American independence hero Simon Bolivar, at the door of the tomb of Bolivar in Caracas July 24, 1999.

/ BERTRAND PARRES/AFP/Getty Images

Chavez, however, set out to curb foreign control over Venezuela's natural resources by nationalizing much of it under the state-run oil company, Petroleos de Venezuela (PdVSA). By 2006, PdVSA had forced private corporations to relinquish at least 51 percent of their control over their 32 operating agreements dating back to the 1990s.

In 2007, Chavez founded and became the leader of United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV). This, along with a crackdown on freedom of the press the previous year, led to opposition fears that he was planning to copy Cuba's single-party system and its tight control over civil rights.

Chavez supported Latin American and Caribbean cooperation and developed close ties with Evo Morales in Bolivia, Rafael Correa in Ecuador and Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, in addition to Fidel and then Raul Castro in Cuba.

He was instrumental in setting up the pan-regional Union of South American Nations, The Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas, The Bank of the South, and the regional television network TeleSur.

Chavez had a Twitter account with more than 1 million followers. Availability of Internet service in Venezuela rose by 43 percent in 2010 and the government set up nearly 700 community centers with computers and free Internet connections, with more planned.

One problem not solved by the Chavez administration was crime. Homicide rates were said to have more than doubled under his watch. Kidnappings also became more common. The construction of new homes and schools in Caracas' slums ran behind schedule.

However, though a polarizing force at home and abroad, there is no doubt that Chavez was an exceedingly popular leader, especially among poor and working class Venezuelans.

He leaves behind four children, three grandchildren and a nation forever marked by his 14-year reign.

© 2013 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[Phil Fiord]

Apparently there are some suggesting the US gave him the illness that killed him, or was it the cancer. Either way some are saying we are the cause.

[Malsua]

Rot in pieces Hugo!

[American Patriot]

Umm... Hugo didn't die. He was actually brought to the United States and is serving in Congress now....