Chavez Dead

From Yahoo:

"Hugo Chavez, fiery Venezuelan leader, dies at 58"

 President Hugo Chavez was a fighter. The former paratroop commander and fiery populist waged continual battle for his socialist ideals and outsmarted his rivals time and again, defeating a coup attempt, winning re-election three times and using his country's vast oil wealth to his political advantage. A self-described "subversive," Chavez fashioned himself after the 19th Century independence leader Simon Bolivar and renamed his country the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. He called himself a "humble soldier" in a battle for socialism and against U.S. hegemony. He thrived on confrontation with Washington and his political opponents at home, and used those conflicts to rally his followers. Almost the only adversary it seemed he couldn't beat was cancer. He died Tuesday in Caracas at 4:25 local time after his prolonged illness. He was 58. During more than 14 years in office, his leftist politics and grandiose style polarized Venezuelans.

^ The world and Venezuela are better now that he is gone. ^

http://news.yahoo.com/hugo-chavez-fiery-venezuelan-leader-dies-58-220210262.html