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VENEZUELA HAS BEEN plunged into uncertainty after the death of President Hugo Chavez, who dominated the oil-rich country for 14 years and came to embody a resurgent Latin American left.
Vice President Nicolas Maduro, who struggled to hold back tears as he announced his mentor’s passing, said armed forces and police had been deployed “to accompany and protect our people and guarantee the peace.”
Venezuela, still deeply divided after an acrimonious election in October, declared a week of national mourning, and a senior minister said a new vote would be called within what are sure to be 30 tense days.
Foreign Minister Elias Jaua said 58-year-old Chavez’s hand-picked successor Maduro would take over as interim leader pending the next election, declaring: “It is the mandate that comandante President Hugo Chavez gave us.”
Hundreds of Chavez supporters crowded in front of the military hospital where he died after a long struggle with cancer, weeping and chanting “We are all Chavez!” and “Chavez lives!” as soldiers guarded the gate.
“He was our father, our liberator. Nobody expected such a tough blow from destiny,” said Carlos Perez, a municipal worker holding a photo of a young Chavez in paratrooper uniform.
“We must continue building the revolution with Maduro, who will be the next president,” he said.
Venezuela’s closest ally, communist Cuba, declared its own mourning period for a leader who helped prop up the island’s economy with cheap fuel and cash transfers, and dubbed Chavez a “true son” of revolutionary icon Fidel Castro.
An Argentine supporter of Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez holds up a t-shirt with an image of him during a demonstration in Buenos Aires, Argentina (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)
But US President Barack Obama – often a target of Chavez’s anti-American scorn – was circumspect, pledging the United States would support the “Venezuelan people” and describing Chavez’s passing as a “challenging time.”
“As Venezuela begins a new chapter in its history, the United States remains committed to policies that promote democratic principles, the rule of law, and respect for human rights,” Obama said in a short statement.
Shortly before Chavez’s death was announced, Maduro expelled two US military attaches and accused Venezuela’s enemies of somehow afflicting the firebrand leftist with the cancer that eventually killed him.
Chavez was showered with tributes from Latin American leaders, not just his allies but also figures like Brazil’s Dilma Rousseff, who hailed him as a “great Latin American” and a “friend of the Brazilian people.”
Russia, China and Iran also paid tribute to Chavez, who had cultivated close ties with bugbears of the West as a way of thumbing his nose at Washington.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Chavez had fallen “martyr” to a “suspect illness,” while hailing his close ally for “serving the people of Venezuela and defending human and revolutionary values.”
Chavez’s body will be taken to a military academy, where he will lie in state until a memorial service with foreign leaders on Friday.
Soldiers lowered the Venezuelan flag to half-staff at the military hospital, where senior figures in Chavez’s 14-year-old administration gathered before the cameras of state television as Maduro broke the news.
“Long live Chavez!” the officials shouted at the end of his announcement.
Defense Minister Diego Molero, surrounded by top military officers, said the armed forces would defend the constitution and respect Chavez’s wishes.
Chavez had checked into the hospital on February 18 for a course of chemotherapy after spending two months in Cuba, where in December he had undergone his fourth round of cancer surgery since June 2011.
Candles, flowers and traditional Russian bottle of vodka, placed next to an image of Venzuela’s late President Hugo Chavez outside the Venezuela’s embassy in Moscow (AP Photo/Misha Japaridze)
The once ubiquitous presence on state television and radio disappeared from public view after he was flown to Cuba on December 10, an unprecedented absence that fueled wave after wave of rumors.
Senior officials had sent mixed signals about the president’s health for weeks, while the opposition repeatedly accused the government of lying about his condition.
A new election could offer another shot at the presidency to Henrique Capriles, the opposition leader who lost to Chavez in October but insisted Tuesday that the two men were “adversaries, but never enemies.”
“This is not the time for differences. This is the time for unity, the time for peace,” Capriles said.
Luis Vicente Leon, director of the polling group Datanalisis, said the government will likely want to hold elections as early as possible “to take advantage electorally of the emotion generated by the president’s death.”
Chavez will be mourned by many of the country’s once-neglected poor, who revered the self-styled revolutionary for using the country’s oil riches to fund popular housing, health, food and education programs.
And like-minded Latin American leaders like Cuba’s Raul Castro, Ecuador’s Rafael Correa and Bolivia’s Evo Morales lost a close friend who used his diplomatic muscle and cheap oil to shore up their rule.
World oil prices rose over the uncertainty following his death.
Chavez died five months after winning re-election, overcoming public frustration over a rising murder rate, regular blackouts and soaring inflation.
The opposition had accused Chavez of misusing public funds for his campaign and dominating the airwaves while forcing government workers to attend rallies through intimidation.
He missed his swearing-in for a new six-year term on January 10, but the Supreme Court approved an indefinite delay. Beginning with his first election win in 1998, Chavez had worked to consolidate his power and make his revolution “irreversible.”
But his policies drove a wedge into Venezuelan society, alienating the wealthy with expropriations while wooing the poor with social handouts.
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I think this is probably one of the most horrifying things I’ve ever read in my 40 years on this planet.
@Fi Wyse: good job you weren’t around for the cold war
@Fi Wyse: Yes, it is horrifying but there have been many equally horrifying conflicts during your 40 years and some with a massive death toll. A United Nations report projected that the death toll from Yemen’s ongoing war would reach 377,000 by the end of 2021. Its figure for the death toll in the Syrian civil war from 2014-to 2021 is 350,000. The list of such conflicts is extensive. Maybe you just haven’t read about them or perhaps they’ve been largely ignored by the mainstream media…
@Fi Wyse: it’s not what you think ..if all also fails nukes are more millarty predicted then using chernobyl… only reason to taking area is that site allows movement of troops from Belarus..
@Fi Wyse: you’re bound to remember the break up of Yugoslavia, that was a particularly nasty series of conflicts too and in the 1990′s when people thought the world was safe and secure.
@Fi Wyse: lots of wars in the past but this is in Europe and so much closer to home. It’s also a conflict which could bring the Two Tribes to war! (US/NATO v Russia and maybe China)
@Fi Wyse: I could not agree more. The damage this man has already done is horrifying. He’s a war monger
@Fi Wyse: it certainly has the potential to be something absolutely horrific but in my own near 45 years of living I remember the Rwandan genocide of 1994 being particularly vile. The events in Srebrenica in 95 were another. There are plenty more but those two stick out for me.
@William Tallon: all of those have been extensively covered, this is different as it involves military superpower potentially squaring off against another military superpower (by proxy at least)
@William Tallon: I can see the tact that you’re applying here that I might be not in touch to the Worlds woes. However I feel it’s the nuclear element that is bothering me the most having watched that at Chernobyl series and also having discussions with my father about how scary it was for him as a child during the Cuban missile crisis and seeing his parents being worried about the situation. All of the events you’ve mentioned were truly horrific and there is images that will never leave any other Minds but this one strikes a personal cord with me.
@David Haye: I was only 9 in 1990 so I was probably still more interested in Barbie when that was going on. However I have read about it over the years.
@Rostyballs78: Rwanda was sickening and I think it was the first time I ever figured out what it was like to be privileged as a child looking at all of the lovely things I had knowing how lucky I was!
@Ed: I disagree that they’ve been extensively covered. You will get the very occasional analysis piece but no ongoing media coverage. One military superpower squaring off against another by proxy was the norm for nearly 50 years during the Cold War so it’s hardly a new state of affairs. The Cuban missile crisis immediately springs to mind not to mention all those proxy conflicts that occurred in Africa and South-East Asia. I think the real reason the writer of the original comment finds it horrifying is that it’s happening in Europe and feels more real whereas those other conflicts are in far-away places you never read about or would ever visit. She’s obviously too young to remember the 140,000 who died in the horrific Yugoslav wars…
@Fi Wyse: I was 10 years old during the Cuban Missile Crisis and remember the effect it had on people. Going to confession suddenly became very popular! I grew up during the Cold War when the threat of nuclear war was very real. People just accepted it though and lived their lives. That doesn’t mean they didn’t care or weren’t scared but I don’t think very many people believed it would happen except for Hollywood etc. because it made for great drama. It was something that was there every day but wasn’t at the forefront of most people’s minds. It still makes for great drama in the media where much of the coverage about potential nuclear war has been ridiculous. I doubt though if very many Western leaders believe the chances of nuclear conflict happening today are in any way realistic…
@Fi Wyse: what about the invasion off Iraq and Afghanistan by America and England
@William Tallon: I hope the chances are not realistic but that doesn’t stop the mind from wandering. I will be very grateful for having a warm bed to sleep in tonight that’s for sure.
@Ogie Carbery: Yes terrible events. I’m not disagreeing with you.
Here we go again
@Rostyballs78: Srebrenica and Rwanda were the two that immediately came to my mind also. Absolutely horrific.
@JohnDoe: Makes sense. I was wondering why they’d want to capture it.
This is a tough one to call. I’m lost between the West staying out of this, and not escalating the whole thing into a potential global nuclear conflict, but at the same time, think we in the West need to stand up to Russia, and not leave Ukraine to be hung out to dry and pillaged. It’s a worrying time, no doubt about it.
@Larry McGarry: Yet another bot
@Finian Lynam: or are you choosing to blindly ignore the points he’s making?
@Finian Lynam: bahahaha not so me old mucker. Just a human with a brain
@Larry McGarry: you mean when Putin was telling the world last week that he had no intention of invading Ukraine.
@Larry McGarry: that buys the rubbish put in spins in your direction….
@Larry McGarry: yeah, who’s brain is that in your hands? May need to get one of your own
@Larry McGarry: so Putin’s only interest is in safeguarding Donetsk and Lugansk? Why then did he recognise them as independent while saying on Monday that Ukraine itself was cobbled together by Lenin out of bits of Poland Hungary, and Russia and had no legitimacy to exist in its own right?
@Hugh Morris @Larry McGarry : Dimitry, you’re having a conversation with yourself.
@Finian Lynam: expect everyone who does not agree with you is to be considered a ‘bot’…
@Sean Minihane: And then the Donbas asked Russia to recognise their independence (which they had looked for since 2014). Ukraine then upscaled their attacks on the Donbas region (which had actually been ongoing since 2014) Then Putin deciding to step in…
@Larry McGarry: Source: Pravda
@Larry McGarry: but no morals!
@Larry McGarry: Just look at all of the mentions of the East Ukrainian people on Sky, BBC, CNN, CNBC, RTE, EURONEWS, FRANCE24.
Its disgusting how these people have not been mentioned even now, let alone the last 8 years
@Finbar Delaney: Shame on all of you for being so sleepy for years.
America = hopefully ok
Russia =definitely bad
On yer bike sheep
@Larry McGarry: absolute BS but know that! he has the audacity to call it denazification! What he’s done has no moral ground and he talks about the Russian motherland, do you remember 1939 when another leader spoke about his motherland?
@Con Cussed: I think Putin is talking about the support for Nazi collaborator Stepan Bandera whom the Ukrainian nationalists have a torch bearing march for every Jan 1st for (USA today). ‘worries most in Ukraine and abroad’ (Irish Times)
@Larry McGarry: you should give up getting all your news from RT. Next you will be trying to tell us the Russians are just there as peacekeepers. Meanwhile the little despot is locking up hundreds of his own citizens for daring to disagree with him.
@Larry McGarry: anyone that defends this mad man is every bit as bad as him.
Putin has openly threatened NATO that if they intervene he will cause a disaster that has never been seen before.
Europe has this rhetoric before from a mad man and it resulted in 60 million deaths.
It’s not up to Russia who gets to join NATO or what that country does.
NATO with all their firepower would wipe Russia of the map without nukes
We don’t allow authoritarians threaten the safety of Europe
We let one man do it before
We won’t allow it to happen a 2nd time
@Sean Minihane: says the man obviously listening to a ‘anyone but Russia channel’, that’s nuts buddy!
Thankfully i have the time to watch most of the major news channel’s.
The reality is, you have to accept there’s 2 sides and go looking for both views. If you don’t well then…. Good luck
Try find the other point of YOUR view
@alan scott: The US has no problem asserting its dominance on other far away regions of the world.
And European countries condone this to the highest order when it happens.
But of course the US Says F&€k off
@Larry McGarry: for God’s sake,you internet farmer, go away and tell Putin you’re convincing no-one.
@Larry McGarry: Russia should have just said that the Ukraine had weapons of mass destruction and then the US and UK would accept this as a valid reason to invade an independent country.
The Russians are using Chernobyl’s instability to blackmail the rest of us
Jesus christ… Make it make sense.
@Finbar Delaney: me Boll€&x Chernobyl would hit them even worse if the wind blew the wrong way. Don’t be a numpty
@Finbar Delaney: How and why? They have nukes which they can hit anywhere on earth within meters. A change of wind and Chernobyl will do just as much damage to them as any where else…
@Larry McGarry: Chernobyl is strategic and is the main route to Kiev- holding it also means it can’t be used in anyway against them people really need to think it out
Send in the west cork fishermen
Now where did I put those iodine tablets…?
@Lola: be sure to check the expiry date.
Ah yes, launching an offensive in an active nuclear zone. Reckless.
@Derek Murphy: uranium does not blow up if you fire a bullet or missile at it, calm down…
@Rory Jennequin: Destroying the structure encasing the plant/reactor would have seriously dire consequences.
@Rory Jennequin: Interior Ministry adviser Anton Gerashchenko “Troops of the occupiers have entered the area of the Chernobyl power plant from Belarus…If the depot was destroyed by artillery strikes from the adversary, radioactive dust would cover Ukraine, Belarus and EU countries”
@Derek Murphy: oh dear god
@Derek Murphy: worrying when the work to contain it with a new concrete dome has only finished in the last year.
@Derek Murphy: And if they used artillery fire it may be a risk. It would also be a risk if the wind blew the other way so that’s probably why it wasn’t used…
Are they afraid that Russia is about to make it melt down again? It’s a strategic move on the way to Kiev, not an attempt to fire it up ffs!
@Rory Jennequin: I think it’s fair to say that Putin is capable of anything at the present moment.
@Dave Johnston: If that was the case why not use his nuclear arsenal that can strike anywhere on the planet within metres of its target. a change of wind and Chernobyl would do just as much damage to him as anyone else..
@Roy Dowling: I have no idea. Give him a buzz there and ask him whats the plan.
@Dave Johnston: That’s not how it works though. You don’t shoot a gun at a nuclear power plant and make it explode. You’re mistaking a radiation leak for a nuclear explosion.
@Rory Jennequin: I never said that I understood the workings of a nuclear plant..I just said that Putin is capable of anything. Were talking about a man who has launched an unprovoked full scale attack on a neighbouring country just hours ago. He is an unhinged individual.
@Dave Johnston: And coke is better than pepsi. If your comment had nothing to do with the taking over of the nuclear plant than why comment on it.
@Rory Jennequin: it made more sense than q comment about your preference of soft drink.
I wonder if he is using it as a safe den for his troops. The west or anyone else certainly isn’t going to launch any missiles at them there.
@Míleata Watch Co: I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. Amass a serious amount of troops there only 100km from Kyiv. Makes them untouchable from both Ukrainian forces and any potential overseas intervention. Kyiv can never be retaken if it falls under Russian control, once troops and hardware are held up in Chernobyl.
He just got himself a huge weapon now! Oh god this is absolutely dire. So so scary for Ukraine and the world
@Tracey Keating Coughlan: He already has actual nuclear weapons.
@FiannaFáilness FineGaelness: yes but are you old enough to remember when Chernobyl originally melted down. The radioactive cloud that went across europe? You see, he has the real nukes, but the only one who can launch them, are the Russians themselves. However should anything happen to the containment system of the core in Chernobyl, by accident or by design, he can claim the Russians did nothing and it was due to a counterattack from The Ukraine/NATO/EU…*insert enemy force here* and deny fault.
@Joe_X: the radioactive cloud also went over Russia, strange you happened to forget that part.
@Roy Dowling: and what is eastern Russia part of? Spain? Antarctica?
As said by a Ukrainian national living in the UK, “this is not 1938…this is 1939″. A terrifying thought to say the least.
Sanctions will do nothing. The world needs to respond with military force
@Niall: Yes, let’s trigger a nuclear war. That’ll work out well.
Oh that’s absolutely fantastic news
Jfc
It’s taken 40 years to bring Chernobyl to where it is now , bad day for mankind ….
I’ll be in the red parrot if anybody’s looking for me
What is he up to? Why take it? I doubt he wants to clear up an old Soviet mess.
@Paul Furey: I suspect it is the region rather than the power station that’s the objective. It was a relatively sparesly populated area, close to Belarus, he now has a much more secure supply line – secured by the risk of damage to the station.
Let them in and like Afghanistan a Stinger a day made the Russians go away.They start to lose a helicopter a day then the price becomes to high.
if this is destroyed, by weather conditions for Friday, and wind the harmful ashes/bits would head direction to Belarus.
Disaster!
It is very possible Putin is betting on his troops soaking up radiation and suddenly devolping super powers like Spider Man in the movies
Let’s hope Chernobyl’s new overseers soak in what that site has to offer in the way of radiation
Yay: they’ll all get Radiation poisoning and be brown bread.
Or
Yay: they might help to clean all that cr*p up
@Larry McGarry: you touch yourself when thinking of Vladimir don’t ya…
@Dave: That’s weak Dave
I hope they don’t go swimming. Dear God let them not go swimming! Don’t do it Dmitry!
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