President Hugo Chavez, R.I.P.

(SACRAMENTO, CA) - The President of Venezuela, Hugo Rafael Chávez Frias, has died from cancer at the age of 58 after a long-running battle to regain his health. This follower of Simon Bolivar's politics of liberty nationalized his country's oil and used the profits to rebuild the infrastructure of his nation.

He was the first to ever do so and his courage and bearing outsmarted even the staunchest opponents. Sadly many Venezuelans believe that President Hugo Chavez's illness was the result of a plot against him, that it was induced and unnatural. While U.S. government officials scoff at the notion, it is something that has happened to political leaders throughout history.

A modern example would be Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko who narrowly survived after being poisoned in 2004. Our resident Forensic Toxicologist (try finding another media group with one on their staff!) Dr. Phillip Leveque, states that there are several different methods used to poison people which are virtually undetectable.

While announcing the death of his President, Nicolas Maduro spoke of a plot against Venezuela, saying he had no doubt that Mr Chavez's cancer, first diagnosed in 2011, had been induced by foul play by Venezuela's enemies, The BBC reports.

He said a scientific commission could one day reveal whether Mr Chavez's illness was brought about by what he called an enemy attack. Struggling to hold back tears, Mr Maduro called on the nation to close ranks after their leader's demise.

Venezuelanalysis.com reports that Vice-President Nicolas Maduro today denounced destabilisation plans by the international and Venezuelan right wing, announcing the expulsion of two US officials for threatening military security. He also implied that Chavez’s cancer was “caused by enemies of Venezuela”.

Maduro made the announcement today just after midday, following a meeting this morning with Venezuela's political military leadership. Maduro pronounced the expulsion of Air Attaché David Delmonaco, and assistant Air Attaché Devlin Costal of the US embassy in Caracas for being implicated in “conspiracy plans”. “They have 24 hours to pack their bags and leave,” Maduro said.

Hugo Chavez is one of the few men who as a political leader, dared to criticize former U.S. President George W. Bush for his warmongering nation's huge list of mistakes. He believed Bush was unfit and that his actions were evil and wrong. About a million and a half dead Iraqis would certainly agree, if they could.

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The White House is not commenting today over Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's statement that U.S. President George "W" Bush is being a "devil" with imperialist ambitions.

"Yesterday, the president of the US, the gentleman who I refer to as 'the devil' came here, talking to the world as if he owns the world," Chavez said.

The speech by Chavez was made at the U-N. Many comments Chavez made were considered "heated" by the Bush administration.

”

From: Why Washington Hates Hugo Chavez Jan-05-2011

In late November, Venezuela was hammered by torrential rains and flooding that left 35 people dead and roughly 130,000 homeless. If George Bush had been president, instead of Hugo Chavez, the displaced people would have been shunted off at gunpoint to makeshift prison camps--like the Superdome--as they were following Hurricane Katrina. But that's not the way that Chavez works.

The Venezuelan president quickly passed "enabling laws" which gave him special powers to provide emergency aid and housing to flood victims. Chavez then cleared out the presidential palace and turned it into living quarters for 60 people, which is the equivalent of turning the White House into a homeless shelter. The disaster victims are now being fed and taken care of by the state until they can get back on their feet and return to work.

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The CITGO-Venezuela Heating Oil Program has helped more than 1.7 million Americans in 25 states and the District of Columbia keep warm since it was launched back in 2005. A nonprofit organization founded by former US Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II, it always had the support of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

”

The first country to step up to the plate and offer aid and assistance in the wake of their devastating 2010 earthquake, was Venezuela.

Loved by the poor and hated by the rich, President Hugo Chavez led his people to a new day and implemented a long list of public services to aid the most vulnerable residents of Venezuela.

His politics endeared him to leaders of nations all over the world that lean toward progressive socialism and democracy. This is a man who did it his way and any who say he was not widely admired and respected by all but the richest and most right-wing Venezuelans, is simply mistaken.

He was the victim of a coup d'état orchestrated and carried out by the CIA and FOX News, no that is not a misprint. Simply watch the program to the right, The Revolution Will Not Be Televised - Chavez: Inside the Coup Perhaps it is the only time in history that a president was forced out of office, and then forced back in when the people of a capital city, Caracas in this case, literally came out of the woodwork by the million, overwhelming the anti-Chavez demonstrators, and demanded their president back, and he came back. An Irish film crew happened to be shooting a documentary when the coup happened and they recorded every vital minute, honestly it is one of the best documenaries ever produced.

Mr Chavez had been battling cancer over the past year. He has undergone several operations in Cuba, and has not made public appearances for several months.

The news of the passing of President Chavez was announced by Nicolas Maduro today, as he stood flanked by military and political leaders. It had been reported that Mr. Chavez had a severe respiratory infection and had entered "his most difficult hours".

In Tuesday evening's emotional address, a tearful Mr Maduro said Mr Chavez had died at 16:25 (17:55 GMT) "after battling a tough illness for nearly two years".

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Tim King: Salem-News.com Editor and Writer

You can write to Tim at this address: tim@salem-news.com.

Visit Tim's Facebook page (facebook.com/TimKing.Reporter)

With almost 25 years of experience on the west coast and worldwide as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor, Tim King is Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. His background includes covering the war in Afghanistan in 2006 and 2007, and reporting from the Iraq war in 2008. Tim is a former U.S. Marine who follows stories of Marines and Marine Veterans; he's covered British Royal Marines and in Iraq, Tim embedded with the same unit he served with in the 1980's.

Tim holds awards for reporting, photography, writing and editing from traditional mainstream news agencies like The Associated Press and Electronic Media Association; he also holds awards from the National Coalition of Motorcyclists, the Oregon Confederation of Motorcycle Clubs; and was presented with a 'Good Neighbor Award' for his reporting, by the The Red Cross.

Tim King reporting from the war in Iraq

Tim's years as a Human Rights reporter have taken on many dimensions; he has rallied for a long list of cultures and populations and continues to every day, with a strong and direct concentration on the 2009 Genocide of Tamil Hindus and Christians in Sri Lanka. As a result of his long list of reports exposing war crimes against Tamil people, Tim was invited to be the keynote speaker at the FeTNA (Federation of Tamil Sangams of North America) Conference in Baltimore, in July 2012. This is the largest annual gathering of North American Tamils; Tim addressed more than 3000 people and was presented with a traditional Sri Lanka ‘blessed garland’ and a shawl as per the tradition and custom of Tamil Nadu

In a personal capacity, Tim has written 2,026 articles as of March 2012 for Salem-News.com since the new format designed by Matt Lintz was launched in December, 2005. Serving readers with news from all over the globe, Tim's life is literally encircled by the endless news flow published by Salem-News.com, where more than 100 writers contribute stories from 23+ countries and regions.

Tim specializes in writing about political and military developments worldwide; and maintains that the label 'terrorist' is ill placed in many cases; specifically with the LTTE Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka, where it was used as an excuse to slaughter people by the tens of thousands; and in Gaza, where a trapped population lives at the mercy of Israel's destructive military war crime grinder. At the center of all of this, Tim pays extremely close attention to the safety and welfare of journalists worldwide.

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Gp March 14, 2013 6:02 am (Pacific time)

Omg! An anonymous who uses '60's hip lingo...

Anonymous March 13, 2013 6:42 pm (Pacific time)

gp you are right on sister!

Argentina mama March 12, 2013 5:16 pm (Pacific time)

Real sources sited in the videos sent by GP

gp March 12, 2013 5:15 pm (Pacific time)

annonymous, your trouble is you are watching interviews with the people in Venezuela who also have a home in Miami. Try listening to the interviews of the common people, most are in Spanish. Chavez is venerated in all of Latin America. You can find out why if you turn on something besides Fox News who jumped the gun over the failed coupe in 2003. What a shame you believe in the failed imperial USA. There is another way, it is called Bolivarian and it is not communist. You silly anti Chavez people just don't understand that it is all about Chavez not letting big oil control Venezuela.

Anonymous March 12, 2013 12:31 pm (Pacific time)

Editor: "Maybe they're influenced by the media which fills their minds with half truths?" I have seen many interviews from Venezuealan citizens over the years and literally all have said the same thing about Chavez, he is evil. So what sources do you have and what real policies has Chavez put in place that made lives better? None! It is all propaganda that the left falls for. I often wonder why you on the left continue to live in America? In time you will be marginalized and will either be deported, or?

Gp March 12, 2013 5:17 am (Pacific time)

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2013/03/12 Chavez depicted as a tyrant for challenging Western oil domination

Gp March 10, 2013 8:13 am (Pacific time)

Anonymous didn't watch the videos or he /they wouldn't speak such nonsense. I only regret that there are no English subtitles in the John Pilger documentary so that non Spanish speakers could hear and understand what the people of South America really think and want which is not an American style life but a life of peace and dignity and control of their own country's wealth, resources and government free of interference from outsiders. The death of Chavez can not stop this Bolivarian Movement.

Anonymous March 9, 2013 10:29 am (Pacific time)

"6% View Hugo Chavez Favorably. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just six percent (6%) of Likely U.S. Voters share a favorable opinion of Chavez. Sixty-seven percent (67%) view the late Venezuelan leader unfavorably, while 27% are not sure." http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/march_2013/6_view_hugo_chavez_favorably / Maybe that above 6% should get checked for coprophagia tendency?

Maybe they're influenced by the media which fills their minds with half truths?

gp March 9, 2013 9:47 am (Pacific time)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rc42HTOptXU
look at all these evil Chavez works,see why he is hated by red blooded Americans

Anonymous March 9, 2013 9:46 am (Pacific time)

GP I watched te video, makes me think of all the other video's I've watched that herald Marxists. Smoke and mirrors that easily fool the low information people, aka, useful idiots. But thanks for providing the link which demonstrates how easily some get sucked in. If these people did not exist, then maybe we would have more "real democracy" around the world.

anon y mouse March 8, 2013 11:56 am (Pacific time)

I think that ananymous is a mole inside Salem news posing as a friend who can help edit

'Anonymous' is the default name that appears if a person doesn't enter a name. They are all from different IP's,

gp March 8, 2013 11:23 am (Pacific time)

to find out why so many hate him, watch this ten minute documentary on his accomplishments.
http://bit.ly/XwYbL0

Anonymous March 7, 2013 1:35 pm (Pacific time)

Chavez: "A great hero?" It's the Left's Big Lie, writ loud, stupid and vulgar, like Chavez himself. The ugly reality is, Chavez's Castro-inspired socialist model, far from helping the poor, left them worse off than ever even as Venezuela's neighbors in Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama and Chile have risen by embracing free markets. Chavez's currency devaluation and capital controls made everything from toilet paper to tires expensive and scarce in Venezuela, harming the poor — who spend 80% of their income on necessities — most. His wretched Cuban education and health care starved public institutions and chased competent doctors and educators abroad (the same thing will probably intensify here as Obamacare continues it's growing tax bite and suffocating rules/regs). His farm and business expropriations killed jobs. And he turned Venezuela into a crime hellhole, which the poor suffered from most. His harm to the poor went beyond Venezuela. Starting in 2002, he worked to drive oil prices skyward by cutting production and monopolizing resources. Higher oil prices hurt the world's poor at the pump. But they also raise the cost of food, and lead to factories being shut down. And this helps the poor? The only proven way to lift the poor from poverty is to embrace free markets. Yet those who praise this odious, now-dead dictator don't seem to get that they served as Chavez's "useful idiots," as Vladimir Lenin called those naive Western socialists who aided his totalitarian rule. http://news.investors.com/ibd-editorials/030613-647020-hugo-chavez-created-poverty-in-a-false-model-of-help-for-the-poor.htm

gp March 7, 2013 9:56 am (Pacific time)

Hugo is alive in us. How sad to lose such a charismatic leader for peace and social justice and antiimperialism.

Anonymous March 7, 2013 9:04 am (Pacific time)

A century and a half of failure going back to when Karl Marx wrote his crap in the 1800s. It was all a result of spending time at libraries in London reading Adam Smith looking for a way to defeat Capitalism. So, he essentially began with an axe to grind and ended up enabling others to use his axe. Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Castro and all of the various shills like Chavez have tried to make a crappy "theory" a success and each one of them have failed miserably. Obama and all his goons think they can top all those losers from the past using a completely failed and worn out "theory"? The "Worker's Paradise" of Karl Marx is really nothing more than hell on earth, as evidenced by the untold millions of people who have died as a result of trying to implement his "theory." Can we sumise those who are the real "useful idiots"?

Muthamizh March 7, 2013 8:45 am (Pacific time)

We respect both Fidel and Chavez. But he has taken wrong decision on Srilanka War...

Anonymous March 6, 2013 10:07 am (Pacific time)

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Conversely, the friend of my enemy is my enemy. I wonder if the smell of sulfur is getting any worse for ol Hugo ? I guess I take killing him off my bucket list. Well, plenty more murdering dictators out there...

Anonymous March 6, 2013 10:01 am (Pacific time)

Hugo Chávez Dead at 58: Good Riddance! This was Chávez’s reign and his legacy; extralegal, vindictive, and interested in the short-term gesture rather than the more difficult, long-term solution. From his revolutionary comrades in Cuba, he borrowed the slogan “patria, socialismo o muerte”—fatherland, socialism or death. The fatherland is a shambles, Bolivarian socialism has failed, and Comandante Chávez is dead. May the “revolution” die with him. Every autocrat, dictator, tyrant, theocrat, and oligarch needs to be seized by the ordinary people, beaten and kicked half to death and screamed at and spat upon, hanged high in public while television cameras record the scene for posterity and people dance and sing for joy, and cremated and his ashes dumped in a garbage pit. No time to cheer, there has to be another despot in the wings ready to take over. The cash flow is there to support him. There will be blood in the streets.

Anonymous March 6, 2013 7:06 am (Pacific time)

Interesting how you wove Bush into the article along with Katrina. As you may know the former mayor of New Orleans, who let all those evacuation buses stay parked and flood out, who also ordered the police to collect all firearms, is under enough felony indictments to get him a life sentence. Also the democratic governor at the time of Katrina did nothing. Though all other areas hit by Katrina were far worse in many cases, they recovered quickly because of the type of leadership they had in those areas. Look at the mess still going on in the New England area, so what grade for Obama? Anyway if Bush had pre-deceased Chavez no doubt we would be hearing the "Sulpher Smell" reference. Bush will say nothing, nor will any responsible leaders. Chavez must have really loved the poor for he created so many while he built a personal fortune of nearly 2 billion dollars. So how does a dedicated political leader get so wealthy while so many of his people live in such squalor?

Ralph E. Stone March 6, 2013 5:05 am (Pacific time)

I was an early, enthusiastic supporter of Hugo Chavez. My wife Judi is Venezuelan. We visited Venezuela in 2007 and 2008. It was clear to us that Venezuela was and still is a troubled country with government corruption; inefficiency and mismanagement; deteriorating health and educational programs;; a troubled economy; crime; human rights violations; and media censorship. And the revolutionary seemed destined to become a president-for-life. Read my July 21, 2010 article "Who is Simon Bolivar.". (salem-news.com/july212010/Chavez-bolivar.php)

Marivel Guzman March 5, 2013 11:27 pm (Pacific time)

Really nice article, and I agree with "The revolution will not be televised" it is one of the best documentaries on a coup. I watch it every minute with tight chest, and very emotional moment when he is back at the presidential palace and swore back in as president.
Also, Chavez had mentioned in one of his addresses to the people, that he believed that his cancer and that of other Latino American presidents were hand made cancers. I imagine that he has refering to US complot to kill him silently. :( RIP Hugo Chavez.

Chavez Supporter March 5, 2013 10:12 pm (Pacific time)

God please grant us the wisdom the change what we can, identify what we can not, and when it comes to people who insult a man who did so much for the poor, please grant us many bullets and no witnesses, thank you, amen.

umm March 5, 2013 9:28 pm (Pacific time)

In time more people from venezuela will provide a more accurate appraisal that will not be similar to the above. Talk to current immigrants who are here. Free people talk freely.

Matt Johnson - Malibu March 5, 2013 8:41 pm (Pacific time)

I don't know who D. Fredricks is, probably a made up name, but ANY person who cheers the death of a person in this manner is an extreme low life and I hope that this individual, when they lose someone, has a hell of a time getting over it, and that is almost a given isn't it? What a shithead, that comment makes me sick.

Joanne March 5, 2013 8:14 pm (Pacific time)

My heart is full of tears and pain. We will not see a man of his stature and courage again. May his family find peace. He was loved by the people all over the world.

D. Fredricks March 5, 2013 6:54 pm (Pacific time)

what a shame- not!

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