Hugo Chavez Dies

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Hugo Chavez: A Master Of The Spotlight

The president had not been seen in public for the three
months but the cult of his personality kept his leadership alive.

10:54pm UK,
Tuesday 05 March 2013
Hugo Chavez Dies Rtrc1vo-1-942x530

Mr Chavez was often pictured with his pet
parrot

By Rachel Younger, Sky News Correspondent

Hugo Chavez was one of the most charismatic and controversial
leaders of our time.

A master of the spotlight, his military fatigues and synthetic red tracksuits
underlining his socialist credentials made him a photographer's dream.

Best of all were the shots that captured him with his pet parrot, named after
a Venezuelan General, and sometimes sporting a tiny red beret to match his
own.

No wonder he caught the imagination of Hollywood filmstars and directors. One
day attending premieres with Oliver Stone, the next sharing jokes with Naomi
Campbell.
Mr Chavez in a Cuban hospital with his
daughters
Mr Chavez was a former soldier who was elected president in 1998, after being
imprisoned for a failed coup seven years earlier.

His nineties brand of revolutionary socialism won him plenty of affection
amongst the poor, with many of his supporters viewing him with almost religious
reverence.

It was an emotional connection he was happy to milk on his weekly television
show, Alo Presidente. The masses tuning in for his rambling poetry recitals and
even stranger song and dance routines.

His country's vast oil reserves gave the president the money to tackle
poverty, boosting spending on health and education. But corruption and
mismanagement left the economy struggling and democracy withered under his
rule.
Mr Chavez throws a baseball for the
cameras
An increasingly autocratic Mr Chavez changed the constitution to allow
unlimited presidential terms, stamped hard on press freedom and nationalised
many of the country's industries.

A natural firebrand, he didn't confine himself to Latin American politics.
Instead he took on the West by courting fellow controversial figures like Cuba's
Fidel Castro and Libya's Muammar Gaddafi, forging a close alliance with Iran
and offering Argentina support on the Falklands.

But Mr Chavez saved most of his wrath for the Americans, regularly referring
to George W Bush as Mr Danger, and accusing Washington of "fighting terror with
terror" in Afghanistan.

In one particularly bellicose statement in 2006 he appeared at the UN a day
after the former American president and stated: "The Devil came here yesterday.
It smells of sulphur still".

Even after four operations and intensive chemotherapy for his cancer, Mr
Chavez maintained his grip on the country, anointing Vice President Nicholas
Maduro as his preferred successor.

Too ill in January to travel back from Cuba for his inauguration, he managed
to hang on to the presidency despite the constitution forbidding it.

For the three months before he died Mr Chavez wasn't seen or heard of
publicly yet the cult of his personality was enough to keep his leadership
alive.

Without it, Venezuela may emerge a very different country.
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