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03/05/13 - San Francisco Chronicle - Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's Anti-U.S. Socialist Leader, Dies at 58 

March 5 (Bloomberg) -- Hugo Chavez, the self-declared socialist who
transformed Venezuelan politics by channeling record oil revenue to the
poor, nationalizing corporations and vilifying foes as U.S. imperialist
puppets, has died. He was 58.

He died today at 4:25 p.m. at a military hospital in Caracas, Vice
President [1]Nicolas Maduro said on state television. On Dec. 10, 2012,
Chavez arrived in Cuba to undergo his fourth cancer operation in 18 months
the following day, two months after winning re-election in a campaign in
which he told voters he was "totally free" of the disease. It was the last
time he would be seen in public.

A former paratrooper who spent two years in jail after leading a failed
1992 coup, Chavez revolutionized and polarized Venezuelan politics. Taking
inspiration from ex-Cuban President [2]Fidel Castro, he built homes and
medical clinics for the poor, nationalized more than 1,000 companies or
their assets and built an anti-American alliance stretching from Iran to
Nicaragua. He won re-election three times in 12 years.

"There's no doubt that Hugo Chavez transformed Venezuela," said [3]Robert
Pastor, a former U.S. National Security Adviser for Latin America under
President [4]Jimmy Carter. "One can debate whether the policies he pursued
actually helped the masses, but you cannot question the fact that the
majority felt that he was a leader who cared about them."

Succession Plan

Chavez was unable to return to Caracas for a swearing-in ceremony to start
his third six-year term on Jan. 10, 2013, after winning about 55 percent of
the vote over [5]Henrique Capriles Radonski in October. He traveled back to
the capital Feb. 18, 2013, and was transferred to a military hospital, the
government said.

Aside from photos the government published Feb. 15, 2013, of Chavez in his
[6]Havana hospital bed, Venezuelans hadn't seen or heard from their
president since he stepped off a plane in Cuba for his Dec. 11 operation.

Chavez suffered a respiratory infection following the surgery that required
the use of a tracheal tube and left him unable to speak, the government
said.

Under Venezuela's constitution, an election must be held within 30 days.
It's unclear whether Vice President Nicolas Maduro or [7]National Assembly
President [8]Diosdado Cabello will take over on an interim basis.

In a national address from Caracas on Dec. 8, 2012, Chavez said he suffered
bouts of pain and was advised by his doctors to have surgery immediately.
Preparing to return to Cuba, he called on Venezuelans to unite behind
Maduro, a former bus driver and union leader who became foreign minister,
as his successor.

Endorsing Successor

"There is risk in this process that you can't deny," a somber Chavez said
during a late-night address from the presidential palace, flanked by Maduro
and Cabello. "It's my firm opinion, clear like a full moon, irrevocable,
absolute, total, that in a scenario that would oblige new presidential
elections that you should elect Nicolas Maduro."

Two days later Chavez returned to Cuba for more surgery. Previous
treatments had also included chemotherapy and radiation.

Like his mentor Castro, Chavez could captivate followers during six-hour
improvised monologues during which he sang, toured socialist farming
co-operatives, criticized ministers for inefficiency and told stories about
his days as a tank battalion leader. The speeches infuriated detractors,
who banged pots and pans in protest and accused him of installing
communism.

UN Speech

One of his most memorable moments on the world stage came in 2006 when,
during a speech to the [9]United Nations General Assembly, Chavez said that
the podium still smelled like sulfur one day after [10]George W. Bush spoke
there, calling the then-U.S. President the "devil."

"Yesterday, ladies and gentleman, from this rostrum, the president of the
United States, the gentleman whom I refer to as the devil, came here,
talking as if he owned the world," Chavez said.

Along with Castro, Chavez paid homage to the 19th-century liberator of
Venezuela and most of the Andean region, Simon Bolivar, citing his writings
and changing the name of the country to the Bolivarian Republic of
Venezuela. He even exhumed the legendary general's bones in an attempt to
prove that he had been poisoned by Colombian oligarchs and didn't die from
natural causes as is historically documented.

Chavez said that he wouldn't rest until Bolivar's dream of a Latin America
united and independent from foreign powers was realized. He tapped the
world's largest oil reserves to provide about $7 billion annually in
subsidized crude to Cuba and its Caribbean neighbors, more than three times
what the U.S. spends in aid in the Western Hemisphere.

Small-Town Upbringing

[11]Hugo Rafael Chavez Frias was born on July 28, 1954, to Hugo de los
Reyes Chavez and [12]Elena Frias de Chavez in the small western town of
Sabaneta in Barinas state. The region is known for its cattle, cowboy
culture and joropo harp music. Raised in a working-class family, Chavez was
brought up largely by his grandmother and sold sweets on the street after
school to supplement the household's income.

A baseball fan and amateur pitcher, he admired Nestor Isaias Chavez (no
relation), a Venezuelan who pitched for the [13]San Francisco Giants in the
1960s, and like Castro, wanted to play professional ball in the U.S. During
a 1999 visit to New York, he threw out the first pitch at a Mets game at
Shea Stadium. He also rang the closing bell on the New York Stock Exchange.

Coup Attempt

After entering a military academy in 1975, Chavez began reading socialist
authors and spending time with people dedicated to changing the country's
political system, which he viewed as corrupt and impervious to growing
social problems. He received a master's degree in political science from
Simon Bolivar University in 1990.

Violent riots over a rise in gasoline and public transportation costs in
1989 that left hundreds dead prompted Chavez to lead a coup attempt in
1992. He was pushed into the public eye for the first time after
surrendering and telling television reporters that his mission to take
power had failed, "for now." He was jailed for two years before being
pardoned.

Returning to national politics in 1998, he ended a 40-year, two-party
political system by defeating a former Miss Universe, [14]Irene Saenz, for
the presidency with 56 percent of the vote. His coalition put education,
health care and cheap access to basic foods at the forefront of its
policies while Chavez made himself accessible to the country's poorest
citizens.

'Two Faces'

In a prescient essay published before Chavez even took office, Nobel
Prize-winning author [15]Gabriel Garcia Marquez described the "two faces"
of the former coup leader he had interviewed: "One to whom good luck had
given the opportunity to save his nation and the other an illusionist who
could go down in history as just another despot," he wrote in the Colombian
magazine Cambio.

In the years ahead, Chavez would rewrite the constitution, win re-election
in 2000 and extend his term to six years from five years. He would later
abolish term limits altogether in a 2009 referendum. Critics said that
through his legislative changes and control of the media, Chavez had
effectively become a dictator.

His anti-U.S. sentiment and wish to regain control of the oil industry led
Chavez to tour the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries early in
his presidency to seek OPEC's consensus on boosting the price of crude.

As prices for Venezuelan crude surged more than 10-fold, to about $126 a
barrel in 2008 from less than $9 a barrel when he took office, Chavez began
to pour money into social programs, helping to cut the poverty rate by
half. He also froze gasoline and electricity tariffs.

Economic Contraction

Chavez radicalized his agenda following a 2002 coup that removed him from
power for 48 hours and after a two-month general strike later that year
paralyzed oil production. He responded by firing more than 18,000 employees
of Petroleos de Venezuela SA, the state oil company, and replacing its
board.

The strike caused the economy to shrink 27 percent in the first quarter of
2003 while unemployment rose to 20 percent.

Chavez overhauled his economic policies after the strike by installing
currency controls and price ceilings on basic goods such as corn meal, beef
and milk. He started a nationalization drive that would give the state
majority control of almost every industry, a move the sparked shortages of
basic goods and inflation of more than 30 percent.

Defending Qaddafi

Chavez accused the U.S. of orchestrating and financing the attempted
overthrow and sharpened his tone against what he called the "empire." The
U.S. rejected the charges, though White House spokesman Ari Fleischer
initially blamed the unrest on Chavez and said -- incorrectly, as it turned
out -- that Chavez had "resigned the presidency."

Sanctions that prohibited Chavez from buying military equipment from the
U.S. prompted him to turn to Russia, China and Iran as commercial partners.
He defended Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi as he fought a 2011 rebellion
that would take his life and called his alliance with Iran "holy."

Chavez was re-elected in 2006, to a six-year term, with more than 60
percent of the vote. The following year he narrowly lost a referendum to
solidify his socialist policies by changing the nation's constitution.

The political opposition -- which had sat out parliamentary elections in
2005, leaving Chavez with a near absolute majority in Congress -- gained
ground in regional elections in 2008 and won the popular vote in
congressional elections in 2010.

Known for a work schedule that often involved 40 cups of coffee a day and
cabinet meetings lasting past midnight, Chavez slowed down his furious pace
in 2011 after a knee injury sidelined him from a regional tour.

Cancer Diagnosis

After visiting Brazil and Ecuador he was operated on in Cuba, where he said
doctors discovered a pelvic abscess and later a cancerous tumor.  Recovery
kept him on the island for almost one month. Maduro said that Chavez's body
couldn't withstand the frenetic pace of his presidency up to that point.

"Chavez is a work machine," Maduro said in a June 11, 2011, interview on
the Telesur television network that Chavez created and financed. "For the
last 12 years he's sustained an intense agenda. With so much tension some
part of his body had to give. Chavez forgets about rest."

Chavez would undergo three more operations in Cuba. Attending a Roman
Catholic mass with his parents, Hugo and Elena, following radiation
treatment in April 2012, Chavez wiped tears from his face and pleaded for
his life.

"I ask God to give me life, however painful," said Chavez, who earlier in
his presidency frequently clashed with Vatican officials over his support
for socialism. "I can carry 100 crosses, your crown of thorns, but don't
take me yet. I still have things to do."

Chavez, who was divorced twice, had four children.

--With assistance from Nathan Crooks in Caracas. Editors: Bill Faries,
Joshua Goodman

To contact the reporters on this story: Charlie Devereux in Caracas at
cdevereux3@bloomberg.net; Daniel Cancel in Buenos Aires at
dcancel@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andre Soliani at
asoliani@bloomberg.net.

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