Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez died this afternoon at 16:25 local time, Minister Nicolás Maduro said. “Chávez left us as heritage a free and independent country. We’ve got to grow out of this pain. Discipline and brothership” ^{((es))Spanish language: ?Chávez deja como herencia a una Patria libre e independiente. Tenemos que crecernos en este dolor. Disciplina, hermandad}, he said on television national chain.

Chávez had not been seen in public since December, and in February he was brought from Cuba to Venezuela, to be admitted at the Hospital Militar in Caracas. Information Minister Ernesto Villegas recently said Chávez was suffering from a new infection that was affecting his breathing, and was undergoing “intensive chemotherapy.”

Hugo Chávez announced he had cancer in June 2011. He was re-elected president of Venezuela in October 2012 for another term of six years; his swearing-in, however, was delayed because of his illness.

“Don’t let there be violence nor hate, but love, peace, unity and discipline. Unity, fight, and victory, with the people’s unity and the FANB” ^{((es))Spanish language: ?Que no haya violencia ni odio. Sino amor, paz, unidad y disciplina. Unidad, batalla y victoria, con la unidad del Pueblo y la FANB}, Maduro said after announcing Chávez’s death.