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Venezuela's Chavez dies, armed forces deployed



Vice President Nicolas Maduro, who struggled to stifle tears as he announced Chavez's passing, said the government had deployed the armed forces and police "to accompany and protect our people and guarantee the peace."

Chavez had named Maduro as his heir, but the Venezuelan opposition is sure to press for fresh elections and tensions have been mounting over government allegations that its domestic rivals are in league with its foreign foes.

Shortly before Chavez's death was announced, senior officials had accused Venezuela's enemies of somehow giving the 58-year-old leftist the cancer that eventually killed him, and two US military attaches were expelled.


US President Barack Obama -- often the target of Chavez's anti-American scorn -- was more circumspect, pledging the United States to support the "Venezuelan people" and describing Chavez's passing as a "challenging time."


He nevertheless expressed hope that US-Venezuelan relations would improve.

Under the constitution, elections must be held within 30 days and National Assembly speaker Diosdado Cabello must take over as caretaker, but Chavez had urged Venezuelans to back Maduro if he was unable to continue.

Die-hard Chavista partisans gathered in Caracas' Plaza Bolivar -- named after the independence hero whose legacy Chavez co-opted for his Bolivarian Revolution -- weeping, waving portraits and chanting his name.

One of Chavez's daughters, 32-year-old Maria Gabriela, wrote on Twitter: "I'm lost for words. Eternally, THANK YOU! Strength! We must follow his example. We must continue building the FATHERLAND! Farewell my daddy!"

Soldiers brought the Venezuelan flag down to half-staff at the Caracas military hospital, where senior figures in Chavez's 14-year-old administration gathered before the cameras of state television to break the news.





The once ubiquitous symbol of Latin America's "anti-imperialist" left disappeared from public view after he was flown to Cuba on December 10, an unprecedented absence from the public eye that fueled all manner of rumors.






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.

Chavez died five months after winning an October election, overcoming public frustration over a rising murder rate, regular blackouts and soaring inflation.



First elected in 1998, Chavez had since worked to consolidate his power and make his revolution "irreversible."
