Hugo Chavez, Venezuela's socialist president, has died at the age of 58, Venezuelan Vice President Nicolas Maduro said today, according to multiple media reports.
Maduro had said Chavez was facing a new respiratory infection and had entered "his most difficult hours," BBC News reported.
Chavez, president for 14 years, had waged a two-year battle with cancer, Reuters reported.
He had seldom been seen in public since undergoing his first surgery and chemotherapy treatment for cancer in Cuba in 2011, ABC News reported.
The Constitution says Venezuela should "proceed to a new election" within 30 days, likely pitting Maduro against Henrique Capriles Radonski, a young state governor who ran against Chávez in a presidential election in October, The New York Times reported.
Chavez criticized the U.S.-led invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan, calling then President George W. Bush "the devil." and Tony Blair, then Britain's prime minister, "an imperialist pawn," The Washington Post reported.
Chavez also built alliances with Iran and Cuba and called Libya a model of participatory democracy, that report continued.
Although Chavez polarized Venezuelans with his
confrontational and domineering style, he tapped into Venezuelan nationalism to
win broad support, particularly among the poor, The Associated Press reported.