Crowds Throng Caracas Streets to Salute Chávez
By WILLIAM NEUMAN
Meridith Kohut for The New York Times
Carlos Hernandez/Reuters
Bertrand Parres/Agence France-Presse
Jose Goitia/Associated Press
Kimberly White/Reuters
Egilda Gomez/Associated Press
Juan Carlos Solorzano/Miraflores, via Associated Press
Leslie Mazoch/Associated Press
Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Meridith Kohut for The New York Times
Tyler Hicks/The New York Times
Miraflores Palace, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Todd Heisler/The New York Times
Rodrigo Abd/Associated Press
Mourners filled the streets to say goodbye to President Hugo Chávez. But
there was uncertainty in Venezuela about how the nation be run and when
an election would be scheduled.
Ariana Cubillos/Associated Press
Women cried on Wednesday morning outside the military hospital where President Hugo Chávez died on Tuesday in Caracas. More Photos »
By WILLIAM NEUMAN
Published: March 6, 2013
CARACAS, Venezuela — In a modest brown wood coffin covered in a Venezuelan flag, President Hugo Chávez
was carried through the capital, Caracas, on Wednesday morning as
crowds thronged the streets, cabinet ministers and top military
officials walked alongside his black hearse, while hundreds of soldiers
in green fatigues and other supporters followed in the yellow, blue and
red caps of the national colors.
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A woman held a picture of Mr. Chávez on Wednesday in Caracas. More Photos »
A priest said a prayer over the coffin before it was loaded on the
hearse, and the national anthem was played. Mr. Chávez’s mother stood at
one end with her head buried in a white handkerchief, overcome with
tears. Along the route of the procession were thousands of people, many
dressed in his movement’s characteristic red shirts, often crying and
holding up cellphones to photograph the coffin as it passed from the
hospital where he died to the military academy here in Caracas where he
studied as a young, unheralded cadet.
He will lie in state there, in honor of a career that included a failed
1992 coup, a successful 1998 election campaign and then 14 years as the
dominant, charismatic, divisive, beloved, reviled and three-times
re-elected president of this oil-rich nation.
Yet as Venezuela
begins to adjust to life without its central figure, questions abound,
including how the nation will be run in the coming weeks and when a new
election will be scheduled to choose Mr. Chávez’s replacement as
president.
Caracas appeared calm on Wednesday morning, although without much of its
usual traffic and bustle. While most shops and businesses shut their
doors abruptly after the announcement Tuesday evening of the death of
Mr. Chávez, who had cancer, many reopened Wednesday. There were lines
outside of supermarkets waiting for the steel gates to go up and
restaurants and pharmacies were open.
“I had faith that he would get up again and speak to us,” said María
Viamizal, 38, a newspaper seller who was a dedicated supporter of the
president and received a new apartment through a government program on
Dec. 11, the same day that Mr. Chávez had his final operation for cancer
in Cuba. “Thanks to God and my commander I have my apartment. He helped
lots of people.”
Although many were in mourning, Mr. Chávez also had many detractors who said they suffered during his long rule.
“Under this government my family went through hard times,” said Gustavo
Graterón, 27, a marketing supervisor on his way to work. He said that a
relative had lost her government job for political reasons and that he
had once been caught in the middle of a gunfight in the crime-ridden
capital and nearly shot. “I didn’t wish for his death, but I’m not in
mourning.”
Close to tears and his voice cracking, Vice President Nicolás Maduro
announced the death to a stunned nation on Tuesday afternoon. He said he
and other officials had gone to the military hospital where Mr. Chávez
was being treated, sequestered from the public, when “we received the
hardest and most tragic information that we could transmit to our
people.”
There remained some uncertainty over the country’s transition.
“What occurs next is very clearly established,” Foreign Minister Elías
Jaua said in a television interview Tuesday night, saying that Mr.
Chávez had referred to the constitutional provisions for succession in
his last televised address to the nation on Dec. 8, before leaving for
his operation in Cuba. “The vice president assumes the presidency, and
elections will be called in the next 30 days.”
Yet no official announcement was made as of Wednesday morning about a
schedule for elections or whether Mr. Maduro has formally taken charge
of the presidency. At the start of the procession on Wednesday, Mr.
Maduro walked out ahead of the coffin, alone for several minutes in the
crowd, dressed in a Chávez-style jacket in the national colors, looking
downcast and pensive. He was then joined by his wife, Attorney General
Cilia Flores.
As darkness fell the night before, somber crowds congregated in the main
square of Caracas and at the military hospital, with men and women
crying openly in sadness and fear about what would come next.
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In one neighborhood, Chávez supporters set fire to tents and mattresses
used by university students who had chained themselves together in
protest several days earlier to demand more information about Mr.
Chávez’s condition.
“Are you happy now?” the Chávez supporters shouted as they ran through
the streets with sticks. “Chávez is dead! You got what you wanted!”
Mr. Chávez’s departure from a country he dominated for 14 years casts
into doubt the future of his socialist revolution. It alters the
political balance not only in Venezuela, the fourth-largest supplier of
foreign oil to the United States, but also in Latin America, where Mr.
Chávez led a group of nations intent on reducing American influence in
the region.
Mr. Chávez, 58, changed Venezuela in fundamental ways, empowering and
energizing millions of poor people who had felt marginalized and
excluded. But his rule also widened society’s divisions, and his death
is sure to bring vast uncertainty as the nation tries to find its way
without its central figure.
“He’s the best president in history,” said Andrés Mejía, 65, a retiree
in Cumaná, an eastern city, crying as he gathered with friends in a
plaza. “Look at how emotional I am — I’m crying. I cannot accept the
president’s death. But the revolution will continue with Maduro.”
The election to succeed Mr. Chávez is likely to pit Mr. Maduro, whom Mr.
Chávez designated as his political successor, against Henrique Capriles
Radonski, a young state governor who lost to Mr. Chávez in the
presidential election in October.
But in light of Mr. Chávez’s illness, there has been heated debate in
recent months over clashing interpretations of the Constitution, and it
is impossible to predict how the transition will proceed.
“We, your civilian and military companions, Commander Hugo Chávez,
assume your legacy, your challenges, your project, accompanied by and
with the support of the people,” Mr. Maduro told the nation.
Only hours earlier, the government seemed to go into a state of
heightened alert as Mr. Maduro convened a crisis meeting in Caracas of
cabinet ministers, governors loyal to the president and top military
commanders.
Taking a page out of Mr. Chávez’s time-tested playbook, Mr. Maduro
warned in a lengthy televised speech that the United States was seeking
to destabilize the country, and the government expelled the two American
military attachés, accusing one of seeking to recruit Venezuelan
military personnel to carry out “destabilizing projects.” He called on
Venezuelans to unite as he raised the specter of foreign intervention.
During the speech, Mr. Maduro said the government suspected that the
president’s enemies had found a way to cause his cancer, a possibility
that Mr. Chávez had once raised. Mr. Maduro said scientists should
investigate the source of his illness.
Mr. Chávez long accused the United States of trying to undermine or even
assassinate him; indeed, the Bush administration gave tacit support for
a coup that briefly removed him from power in 2002. He often used
Washington as a foil to build support or distract attention from deeply
rooted problems at home, like high inflation and soaring crime.
American officials had hoped to improve relations with Venezuela under
Mr. Maduro, with informal talks taking place last year. But more
recently, the government has appeared to shift into campaign mode,
taking sweeping aim at the Venezuelan opposition and playing up the
opposition’s real or alleged ties to the United States.
“We completely reject the Venezuelan government’s claim that the United
States is involved in any type of conspiracy to destabilize the
Venezuelan government,” Patrick Ventrell, a State Department spokesman,
said after the expulsion of the American attachés. He added,
“Notwithstanding the significant differences between our governments, we
continue to believe it important to seek a functional and more
productive relationship with Venezuela.”
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Mr. Chávez’s cancer was diagnosed in June 2011, but throughout his
treatment he and his government kept many details about his illness
secret. He had three operations in Cuba between June 2011 and February
2012, as well as chemotherapy and radiation treatment, but the cancer
kept coming back.
Then on Dec. 8, just two months after winning re-election, Mr. Chávez
stunned the nation by announcing in a televised address that he needed
yet more surgery. That operation, his fourth, took place in Havana on
Dec. 11.
In the aftermath, grim-faced aides described the procedure as complex
and said Mr. Chávez’s condition was delicate. They eventually notified
the country of complications, first bleeding and then a severe lung
infection and difficulty breathing.
After previous operations, Mr. Chávez often appeared on television while
recuperating in Havana, posted messages on Twitter or was heard on
telephone calls made to television programs on a government station. But
after his December operation, he was not seen again in public, and his
voice fell silent.
Mr. Chávez’s aides eventually announced that a tube had been inserted in
his trachea to help his breathing, and that he had difficulty speaking.
It was the ultimate paradox for a man who seemed never at a loss for
words, often improvising for hours at a time on television, haranguing,
singing, lecturing, reciting poetry and orating.
As the weeks dragged on, tensions rose in Venezuela. Officials in Mr.
Chávez’s government strove to project an image of business as usual and
deflected inevitable questions about a vacuum at the top. At the same
time, the country struggled with an out-of-balance economy, troubled by
soaring prices and escalating shortages of basic goods.
The opposition, weakened after defeats in the presidential election in
October and elections for governor in December, in which its candidates
lost in 20 of 23 states, sought to keep pressure on the government.
Then officials suddenly announced on Feb. 18 that Mr. Chávez had
returned to Caracas. He arrived unseen on a predawn flight and was
installed in a military hospital, where, aides said, he was continuing
treatments.
Over nearly a decade and a half, Mr. Chávez made most major decisions
and dominated all aspects of political life. He inspired a fierce,
sometimes religious devotion among his supporters and an equally fervent
animus among his opponents. As many of his followers say, “With Chávez
everything, without Chávez nothing.”
But that leaves his revolution in a precarious spot without its charismatic leader.
“In regimes that are so person-based, the moment that the person on
which everything hangs is removed, the entire foundation becomes very
weak because there was nothing else supporting this other than this
figure,” said Javier Corrales, a professor of political science at
Amherst College.
Mr. Chávez’s death could provide an opportunity for the political
opposition, which was never able to defeat him in a head-to-head
contest. Mr. Capriles lost to Mr. Chávez by 11 percentage points in
October. But he has twice beaten top Chávez lieutenants in running for
governor of his state, Miranda, which includes part of Caracas.
And Mr. Maduro is far from having Mr. Chávez’s visceral connection to
the masses of Venezuela’s poor. Even so, most analysts believe that Mr.
Maduro will have an advantage, and that he will receive a surge of
support if the vote occurs soon.
But even if Mr. Maduro prevails, he may have a hard time holding
together Mr. Chávez’s movement while fending off resistance from what is
likely to be a revived opposition.
Mr. Chávez’s new six-year term began on Jan. 10, with the president
incommunicado in Havana. In his absence, the government held a huge
rally in the center of Caracas, where thousands of his followers raised
their hands to pledge an oath of “absolute loyalty” to their commander
and his revolution. Officials promised that Mr. Chávez would have his
inauguration later, when he had recovered.
But the hoped-for recovery never came. Now, instead of an inauguration,
Mr. Chávez’s followers are left to plan a funeral.
The foreign minister, Mr. Jaua, announced that on Wednesday Mr. Chávez’s
body would be taken to the military academy in Caracas and lie in state
there.
Mr. Jaua said that the government would hold a ceremony on Friday with
visiting heads of state and that officials would announce later where
Mr. Chávez would be laid to rest.
For Good or Ill, Chávez Altered How Venezuela Views Itself
By WILLIAM NEUMAN
The fundamental legacy of Hugo Chávez, who died on Tuesday, is not made
of concrete and steel, highways and houses, but something less tangible:
he has changed the way Venezuelans think.
Hugo Chávez | 1954-2013
A Polarizing Figure Who Led a Movement
By SIMON ROMERO
Mr. Chávez led a nationalist movement that lashed out at the United
States and wealthy Venezuelans, tapping into the resentments of his
country’s poor.
Venezuelan Expatriates See a Reason to Celebrate
By LIZETTE ALVAREZ
In Miami-Dade County, news of Hugo Chávez’s death elicited outpourings
of raucous celebration and, to many, cautious optimism for the future.
COPY http://www.nytimes.com/
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