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http://news.yahoo.com/hugo-chavez-fiery-venezuelan-leader-dies-58-220210262.html

I never saw that coming.

Hell, that was pretty unexpected..
Before we start screaming deepshit like: Burn in hell bla bla bla, good riddance, 'MERICA WINS, FLAWLESS FREEDOOM..! and "Before he died, he heard Guile Theme over and over.."
I have to give props to him, I mean…fighting cancer isn't easy, my grandpa died becouse of it.
Sure, the whole "Blame USA" made him pretty infamous, his politics weren't the best but I just can't get happy over a man' death…with some exceptions of course…
Goodnight sweet prince / Die mothafucka' , choose your own here…
Feel free to karma my ass, my body is always ready

There's still many American hating leaders out there though.

Anyone remembers that time when they released Simón Bolívar and Francisco de Miranda as action figures superheroes in Venezuela? According to Chavez: "It's the battle against Superman, against Batman, against Robin, against all that poisons our minds and makes us admire the (US) empire from the time we are children."
This made me facepalm so hard…

He's had cancer for at least the last three years. Probably more.

Just a few days ago, I saw a headline that said he was on his deathbed.

I didn't know about that. But now I'm embarassed of even living in the same continent.
Seriously, some people should think twice before making THAT kind of actions.

Well, that was fast.

If you must upvote, upvote him.^

I want a Simon Bolivar action figure though…..

But in reality, was Hugo Chavez really that bad? He's demonized mostly for one thing: He doesn't like America.

In the vast majority of cases, his rule was pretty mild, especially by South American standards. Hell, he probably abused less people than Obama.

If he really hates America, then why did he give heating oil to poor Americans?

No, Hugo Chavez's sin was criticising American imperialism and calling George W. Bush the devil. I know I called Dubya "The Devil" quite a few times.

But I suppose his other crime in the US's eye was not buckling to US financial interests.

Anyway, even though Hugo Chavez really did not like opposition, and was anti-Jew, he did support rights for women and really helped to alleviate poverty. It's embarrassing that a second world country like Venezuela can give proper support to the poor and give heating oil to Americans, yet America can't support its poor when it's the richest country in the world.

So yeah, Chavez was controversial, but a good leader despite his flaws, and has left a positive mark on Venezuela.

EDIT: I want a Bolivar action figure too.

If I can say one thing about Hugo Chaves, is that he was a brave man, who wasn't afraid of pointing his finger at any world ruler (specially in this times of economic crisis) and say that their way of governing had only made things worse for their own country and the world. And despite not being the perfect ruler himself, he never bowed down his country or his people to any other, and that by itself is more than admirable in a person.

http://thinkexist.com/quotes/hugo_chavez/

That's why I for one say RIP

One down, three to go.

>Notices this thread is front paged
>Huge Chavez

Huge?

GET IT TOGETHER, MODS!

Good night my sweet prince.

But Chavez wasn't a dictator.

And also, I can think of more than those 3 than need liberating.

Those are the three the Western governments actually give a damn about and actually have a chance of being overthrown by their countries' people.

It has been five days since the Pope resigned. A baby got cured from AIDS and Chavez died.

Belarus is western though in a sense.

When some of you say it's unexpected, you are actually being sarcastic right? That guy probably died long time ago.

Considering we just saw him a few days ago…

Venezuela era liberal pero a la manera de Chávez. Esto fue de una protesta PACIFICA hace poco aquí en Venezuela:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BEEEa1TCQAEF_yg.jpg:large

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BEEPTpHCAAABtHk.jpg:large

http://twitpic.com/c73kbh

Y después de que una vez se escuchó oficialmente que habia muerto, los chavistas encendieron las carpas de los estudiantes protestantes: https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BEoKvbfCEAE3sFs.jpg:large

Y si todavia no tienen una buena imagen de como son los chavistas, miren lo que paso hace pocas horas a una periodista al frente del Hospital donde estaba Chávez:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQ_j28aYEtA&feature=youtu.be

Los dos primeros enlaces no funcionan.

Gracias por el aviso, ya lo edite.

“Before he died, he heard Guile Theme over and over..”

Why not? Guile's theme goes with everything, dying included.

Quien se alegra de una muerte ajena es el primer pecador, a pesar de todo nosotros no debemos juzgar a nadie, solamente Dios es el único, Paz a Venezuela y QEPD Hugo Chavez.

I find it really hard to think that Khamenei will be overthrown. While there was this "green revolution" in Iran, a lot of people tend to exaggerate the size of the green movement and independent polls prior to the 2009 election actually showed that Ahmedinejad was indeed the projected winner.

http://in.reuters.com/article/2009/06/15/iran-election-poll-idINN1519237220090615

That and should America really topple Khamenei? By the standards of the region, he is not that bad and would we end up with a failed state ala Iraq and Afghanistan?

BTW, This comment is coming from a Sunni Saudi. Which shows that I have absolutely no bias in favour of Iran and have zero love for the Ayatollah.

Not to mention Ahmedinejad has little power anyway despite his position as an executive, because there are 13 people who can override him anyway.

And yes, I do think toppling Iran at this time will backfire. Iran is stable contrary to many reports and wants peace. Although Iran is not a bastion of free speech or human rights, it is a bastion of stability within the region.

Siempre te recordaremos, jefe.

En verdad que da pena ajena.

</a

Chavez may have had his goofy moments but his legacy's something much better than that.

Calling George Bush "El Diablo" isn't goofy though. It's the truth.

Se oye ridículo, pero el gobierno no lo dejaba ver para nada que daba la impresión que estaba muerto desde hace mucho tiempo. Ignoraba las peticiones de los venezolanos y los reprimía tan solo preguntando.

It's in spanish but i think it's good to put it here

http://www.elpuercoespin.com.ar/2013/03/05/chavez-al-final-de-cuentas-por-jon-lee-anderson/

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez Frias, who died Tuesday (March 5, 2013) of cancer at the age of 58, was one of the leaders of the most blatantly provocative recent global scene. His death comes after months in which his health was a national mystery, obfuscation and rumors theme; spent the day of the inauguration of its new mandate in a hospital bed in Cuba. Vice President Nicolás Maduro, who made the announcement, is one of the political maneuvering to control the country now, where elections will be held in a month.
Paratrooper who spent two years in prison after leading a failed coup against the Venezuelan government in 1992, Chavez emerged after an amnesty, with a renewed determination to achieve power and sought the support of veteran Communist leader of Cuba, Fidel Castro, to do so. In 1998, Chavez won the Venezuelan presidential election promising to change things forever, from top to bottom. Since he was sworn in February 1999, was dedicated to doing just that. What left is a country that in some ways will never be the same and, in others, Venezuela is the same as always: one of the richest countries in the world's oil, but socially unequal, with many citizens living in some of the most violent slums of Latin America.
To say for it, Chavez is strongly devoted to trying to change the lives of the poor, who were its greatest and most fervent followers. He began by designing a new constitution and renaming the country. Simon Bolivar, who fought to unite Latin America under his command, was the hero of Chavez, so he changed the country's name to the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and from then on spent considerable time and resources trying to forge what he called his "Bolivarian Revolution". There would be, initially, a socialist or even anti-American entrepreneurship by force, but in the years following the Chavez government and its international role became both, at least in intention.
I met with Chavez several times over the years, but the first time I saw him was in 1999, shortly after he became president of Venezuela, in Havana, Cuba, giving a speech in a hall of the University with the two Castro brothers among attendees-an exceptional occurrence, and other senior members of the Cuban Politburo. Fidel Castro looked and listened spellbound for ninety minutes when Chavez spoke, laying the groundwork for the intense rhetoric and deep relationship between the two countries, and the two leaders, who would soon follow. That day, a number of observers in the room commented on what appeared to be a great romance between the two. They were right. Chavez, almost thirty years younger than Fidel, quickly became inseparable of the Cuban leader, who was clearly a father figure and a model (Chavez's family was humble and provinces, the interior of Venezuela). And for Castro, Chavez was an heir and something like a beloved child. Surprisingly, or appropriately, was Fidel who bother to Chavez warned on a visit to Havana in 2011 and insisted that she see a doctor, who soon discovered the cancer Chavez described as a tumor the size of a baseball and somewhere in his groin. Since then, and until he returned home in February 2013, and terminally ill, Chavez received virtually all of his cancer treatment in Havana, Fidel under close scrutiny.
A warm and affable showman, with a remarkable sense of occasion and the strategic opportunity, Chavez grew in ambition and global stature during the Bush years, in which Latin America was relegated to the background by Washington. Chavez soon distanced himself from the bellicose rhetoric of the Bush administration after the September 11, 2001 and became increasingly acid on the policies and attitudes of the "Empire" American. Chavez closed the U.S. military liaison offices in Venezuela and ended cooperation with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). Soon went further, ridiculing President deliciously united States, which he called "Mr. Danger "and" donkey ", and who regularly mocked in his weekly television program" Hello President ", in which he sometimes seems to rule a reality TV (once ordered his defense minister to send Venezuelan forces Colombian border to live in "Hello President"). A coup attempt by a cabal of right-wing politicians, businessmen and military, in 2002 Chavez stopped briefly and humiliating, before it was released and could resume his post.
The failed coup against Chavez, but not before receiving apparently a wink and a sign of consent from the Bush administration. Chavez never forgave the Americans. From then on, his anti-American rhetoric became more heated, and whenever he could embarrass Washington sought. Earlier, in 2000, Chavez had flown to Baghdad for a friendly meeting with Saddam Hussein. Then in his declared ambition to weaken the "empire" of the United States and create a "multipolar world", others embrace characters like anti-American positions: Ahmadinejad, Iran, was one of them, Lukashensko of Belarus was another. Vladimir Putin invited to send its ships to conduct exercises in Venezuelan waters and sold arms. And was his buddy and increasingly dependent relationship with Fidel Castro.
Venezuela's oil flowed to Cuba devoid of energy, ending, in fact, with nearly a decade of hardship of the "Special Period" that followed the Soviet collapse and the abrupt end of three decades of generous subsidies from Moscow. Cuban doctors, sports trainers and security men soon were traveling in the opposite direction, helping Chavez staffing some of the programs called missions, aimed at alleviating poverty and disease in Venezuela's slums and rural areas . Chavez and Castro took trips together, often visited the country of the other, and it was obvious that they were pleased with each other's company.
On a visit to Caracas in 2005, shortly after Chavez announced he had decided that socialism was the way forward for revolution and for Venezuela, I saw him at the presidential palace. I was overflowing with a new revolutionary fervor. In a meeting with poor farmers, announced making large private land inside and told them euphorically to organize into groups and work confiscated properties. " RAS! "shouted happily, and repeated it many times" RAS! ". An aide explained that the acronym stood for " towards socialism ".
Never worked, though. Attempts to reform and collectivization of Chavez seemed poorly planned and out of season, somehow, as he seemed a return to old times, in which Latin America was dominated by warlords and capricious was a Cold War in a clearly polarized world.
A couple of years later, I asked him why he had decided to adopt socialism as late. He acknowledged that he had arrived late, long after the world had left, but said he had clicked on it after reading the novel "Les Miserables" by Victor Hugo. That and listening to Fidel.
Solved by billions of dollars of escalating oil prices, Chavez had won a significant influence in recent years throughout the hemisphere, forming relationships with a number of emerging leftist regimes in some cases subsidized and helped shape in Bolivia, Argentina and Ecuador, and Nicaragua, again led by the old Sandinista leader Daniel Ortega. He also formed a commercial block, called ALBA, aimed at countering U.S. economic hegemony in the region. He predicted a weakening of U.S. influence and opportunity, after all, to the resurrection of the great dream of Bolívar. In a sense, Chávez was right. The American influence has weakened over the past decade in Latin America, his timing was good. But the region was not only Brazil Venezuela finally emerging from his sleep as regional political and economic power, which began to fill the void. The last Brazilian leader, Lula, who was also a left-wing populist, made ​​in the same way, the "people" and the alleviation of poverty a priority of his administration and, with a better team without polarizing confrontation with the Empire , won an impressive degree. In Venezuela, in contrast, the Chavez revolution suffered mediocre managers, ineptitude and lack of monitoring of things.
What remains, however, after Chavez? A big hole for the millions of Venezuelans and other Latin Americans, mostly poor, who saw him as a hero and a protector, someone who "cared" for them in a way that no other Latin American leader had done in recent memory. For now they will despair and anguish that will not like him, not with a big heart and a spirit so radical, in the foreseeable future. And they are probably right. But so is that chavismo has not yet shown results. The designated successor to Chavez, Maduro undoubtedly attempt to continue the revolution, but unattended social and economic problems the country is accumulating and it seems likely that in the not too distant future, the anxiety over the loss of the leader will be extended to the unfinished revolution left behind.
At the end of a journey that Fidel and Chavez did together in 2006, Castro fell ill and nearly died of diverticulitis, which led him to resign the presidency of Cuba a year and a half later and transfer power to his younger brother Raul. I was on the plane when Chavez flew to Cuba in 2008, to congratulate Raul. In Havana, Chavez disappeared from view-to visit Fidel, who was still sick and imprisoned. On the return flight the next day, we were informed, happy, all who were on board that "Fidel is fine." He added: "Fidel asked me to say hello to all of you for your part." Five years later, the Castro, both octogenarians, are alive and well and is Chavez who has left the scene.

In Spain, many people believe that Francisco Franco, who died at midnight on November 20th, 1975, was already dead by 6 AM on November 19th. The Spanish government decided to "postpone" his death to match with the death of José Antonio Primo de Rivera, founder of the Spanish Falange, who was executed by the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War on November 20th, 1936.

So, it's not impossible that the Venezuelan government postponed the announcement.

Y el gobierno venezolano lo pospuso mucho. Se dice que posiblemente murió por el 30 o 31 de diciembre del 2012, y el gobierno no lo ha desmentido.

Dude, we just heard from him a few days ago.

Also, how the fuck did my post in some JFF thread end up here?
I know I posted it in JFF

He could have died 13 hours before the announcement, that is still postponing it.

Zetsumei von kiddo

Por lo que dijistes antes de las fotos, se probo que fue una foto antigua y cargada con photoshop:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BEX5pXVCIAAHQkb.jpg:large

http://www.clarin.com/mundo/mostraron-Chavez-sonriendo-Granma-Cuba_CLAIMA20130215_0116_14.jpg

Se puede ver que el periódico esta colocado.

This was requested by popular demand
Here, have a free Simon Bolivar action figure!

That does not look like Simon Bolivar.

EDIT: This is more like it.

Comandante mil gracias, por parte de este pueblo que protegio

Y lo demuestra 155.788 asesinatos desde 1999.

De hecho, estas fueron palabras de su mismisimo vicepresidente, quien culpo a EU por darle cancer a Chavez

And we'll give them all Cancer. How dare they not kiss our feet and bleed for us.

^ el mensiona a los enemigos de Venezuela, esta abierto a interpretacion y la verdad es que es muy disparatado el asegurar que el cancer simplemente se puede generar en blancos incomodos, Chavez fue polemico y provablemente muy suelto de la lengua pero de ningun modo una amenaza para EU o a todos los efectos para cualquier pais, asi que no tiene fundamento el que hallan querido enfermar a Chavez cuando hay metodos mas.. hum… drasticos y efectivos para llevarlo a cabo.

I think few people can get over cancer and there is a high chance that it returns after some time, Chavez had it from some time now but he always kept his image to his people as strong and healthy, it's was just matter of time but i guess no one really thought it would be that soon.

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/events/por-qué-no-te-callas

Despite knowing he had cancer, this just feels like it was completely out of left field. I hope that whoever gets put in charge now will pull their shit together and start working to improve Venezuela's stagnant economy.

ENGLISH, MOTHERF**KER, DO YOU SPEAK IT?

That's not Simon Bolivar, that's Francisco de Miranda.