Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Dies

Venezuela's military says it will remain loyal to the constitution amid fears of unrest following the iconic leader's death.

当地时间5日，委内瑞拉副总统马杜罗宣布，总统查韦斯逝世，结束了对委内瑞拉14年的执政。接班人马杜罗还是反对派执政委内瑞拉？政权更迭能否顺利？委内瑞拉这款拉美“快车”将驶向何方？

Our commander, President Hugo Chavez has passed away after bravely battling his illness for nearly 2 years. He passes away with the love and blessings of the people and with the total loyalty of his fighting comrades. He has the love of all his family.

Today in his homeland, we are suffering the immense pain of this historic tragedy. We, his companions, now inherit his challenges and his plans along with the supports of everybody in Venezuela.

We’re live to Washington, our US correspondent Dominique Wacom who is there. Dominique, a huge moment for Venezuela.

Yes, now Hugo Chavez was, a lot of people said, he ran a personality cult of the people, said he was a political movement. He’s very much like a church. And there are those who say now that church has lost its Messiah. He used a mixture of brute force, persuasion, passion and charisma to keep himself in power and the grip of power, of course he was elected to that power, but such was the adoration and devotion that many of the poor in Venezuela fell for him, that he was seen as almost sort of a religious figure. And his loss now leaves a huge void in Venezuela in politics. And look, people say he’s irreplaceable, he became synonymous with the country he led.

Now what happens in terms of vocalities? The expectation is there will be elections called quickly so that the man he appointed as his successor, the vice president Nicolas Maduro can win those elections on a wave of sympathy for the dead leader, and also possibly using some of the anti-western ritual that we have already heard from Maduro early on today when he accused the historical enemies of the homeland, Badawei Titter mean America or another western agents for the cancer that Chavez died of.

So the expectation is we’re gonna have elections called quickly, Maduro may win them, he’s regarded as a former bus driver, he’s regarded as a loyalist, somebody who was a supporter of Chavez, the man and his policies, a great negotiator in terms of keeping this coalition together. But it’s a pretty shaky coalition, as there’s moderates, leftists, military figures, and the person who held that together was Chavez, with his extraordinary leadership and charisma, now he’s gone, the thing will be even if Maduro can win elections that we’re gonna see a period of instability, and possibly some kind of political chaos in Venezuela now that Chavez is gone.